5/20/2023 0 Comments Women race & class by angela davisMotherhood, however, did not afford Black women any better treatment because the “deological exaltation of motherhood” that applied to white women “did not extend to slaves” (7). Additionally, after the abolition of the international slave trade, slavemasters relied heavily on enslaved women’s reproductive capacity to replenish their slave labor force. Black women were not seen as feminine or fragile because, like their male counterparts, they were seen as chattel: a source of unpaid labor who were primarily field workers. Although the 19th century saw a redefining of femininity to center around women’s roles as mothers, wives, and housekeepers, these notions of femininity only applied to white women. Davis chronicles the reality of Black women’s lives during slavery and its lasting impact on them long after slavery was abolished.
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