African-American slave

Women in colonial
America

Presented by: Ayachi Nassib and Dhaoui Ines

Supervised by: Mrs. Saloua Cherif

Outline:
1.

A short overview of the history of slavery

a. In the North
b. In the South
2. Slave Women and labour
a. The role of Slave Women in the agricultural field
b. The role of Slave Women in the domestic field
c. The role of Slave Women in midwifery and
doctoring
3. The impact of slavery on African-American
women.
a. At the psychological level
b. At the physical level
c. At the financial level
d. At the social level
4. Conclusion

A short overview of the history of

slavery
The first African slaves landed at

Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619.

At the beginning, the number of
slaves imported was small, but with
the development of the plantation
system in the Southern colonies in the
latter half of the 17th century, the
number of Africans imported as
agricultural slave labourers increased.

In the North
In the northern colonies, slaves were

used as domestics and in trade.

In the South
the southern colonies, they were used
more in agriculture, almost all slaves
were used to work tobacco, corn,
potatoes, silk, rice and indigo plantations.

In

Slave women and labour

Slave women played an integral

part in Americas colonial history

Slave women did a variety of
heavy labour and occupied jobs
which were also assumed by men
Scholars consider that female
slaves faced additional
responsibilities and even more
challenges than some male slaves.

Despite the variety of heavy labour

women slaves had to occupy, they were

physically, sexually, emotionally abused
from masters and mistresses, overseers,
male slaves and members of the masters
family.
Whenever a slave escapes, slave owners
placed advertisements in such
newspapers as the Georgio Gazette either
seeking the return of fugitive females or
offering them for sale.

The role of Slave Women in the

agricultural field
African American women in colonial

America did the same kind of work as men.

They prepared fields, planted seeds,

cleaned ditches, hoed, plowed, picked

cotton , cut and tied rice stalks.
Slave women cultivated silk, rice, indigo,

and worked in cotton fields.

 Women did not only hoed and

shovelled but they cut down trees

they were used as lumberjacks.
Solomon Northrop, a kidnapped

slave, knew women who wielded

the ax so perfectly that the
largest oak fell before their welldirector blows.

A picture of slave women in cotton

fields
Commenting

on the work of
female slaves
on his estate,
one planter
noted that
women
usually picked
more cotton
than men.

The role of Slave Women in the

domestic field
House servants spent time tending to

the needs of their plantation

mistresses: dressing them, combing
their hair sewing their clothing
Cooking was definitely a female

work, good cooks were highly

respected by both blacks and whites.

All females at one time or

another had to spin and weave

They had to make their families

clothes and if one of them sews

well, she does the white familys
clothes or can be hired out and
allowed to keep a portion of the
profit she brought to the master
or mistress.

The role of Slave women in midwifery

and doctoring
Women slaves have also occupied jobs such as

midwifery and doctoring

Clara Walker, a former slave, remembered that

she trained for five years under a doctor who

became so lazy after she had mastered the job.
He would sit down and let her do all the work.
After her apprenticeship ended she delivered
for both slaves and whites
Other midwives learned it from a female
relative, often their mother, and then in turn
passed the skill on to another female relative.

Were Black Women reward in counter

part?
Although women occupied the different

positions and succeeded in asserting

theirselves, black women were still denigrated
and multi-oppressed/victimized by the different
societal members :
- white male
- white female
- black male

The impact of slavery on

African American Women:
1/ At the psychological level:
Profound feelings of sorrow:
Ellen Craft a fugitive slave from Georgia
claims:
The fact that another man had the power
to tear from our cradle the new-born
babyand sell in the shamble like a
brutehaunted us for years.

Suicide and a will to die

Suicide
Many women committed suicide.
Ant Nelli who starved herself to death rather
than permit her owner to repeatedly abuse her.
A will to die:
This is expressed throughout the Negro
Spirituals
( religious songs sung by
African Americans since the earliest days of
slavery)
Ive got two wings for to veil my face
Ive got two wings for to fly away

Strength and self reliance:

Strength:
Suki, a slave woman whose actions kept Master

from sexually abusing other enslaved women.

Lucy, one old slave had more control over female
slave than her master.
Self reliance:
Eliza Overtone, an ex slave, remembered how her
mother stole, slaughtered and cooked one of her
masters hogs.
Unlike many slave women who succumbed
to
pessimism and despair, many others
derived their strength from this harshness.
Harshness
Slaves
resistance
freedom .

2/ At the physical level:

An ex-slave said that female
slaves often were in the fields
before five in the morning and in
the evening they worked as late
as nine in the summer and seven
in winter.
Due to the very hard work they

performed, many women became

physically disabled.

3/ At the Financial level:

Women slaves were also
financially independent from
men, they earned money
from selling baskets they
have woven or from cutting
cordwood or burning coal for
blacksmiths.

4/ At the Social level:

Women were able to rank and order
themselves independently from men
Women slaves developed a sense of

community and respect toward each

other.
-When women sewed, they usually did
so with other women
- One ex- slave said: Women
gathered, independent of male slaves
to do washing.

Blassingame in his book The Slave

Community: Plantation Life in the

Antebellum South reported that slaves
usually shared their few goods, rarely stole
from each other, and the strong helped the
weak.
Jane Pyatt, a formerly enslaved women

noted:
The real character of a slave was brought
out by the respect that they had for each
otherthey were for the most part truthful,
loving and respectful to one another.

But at the same time, Harriet Ware, a northern

missionary, writing from the Sea Islands in

1863, blamed the excessive quarrelling among
women.
Excessive quarrelling among women hints at
the
existence of a gossip network among slaves.
This independence and self-reliance among
women slaves led to what anthropologists call,
matrifocality, which means when mothers
become the focal point of family activity.
Womens role became more central than were
fathers to a familys continuation and survival as
a unit.

Conclusion
Despite the very hard conditions and the

multiple traumas they have experienced, during

the age of slavery, women proved that they
were able to occupy the same activities as men
and learned how to be totally self-reliant.
In fact, slave women were searching for a way
to express themselves and to stand up for their
rights. For instance, literature was first and
foremost a fundamental means of struggle for
freedom, equality, and self assertion.
As an example: Phillis Weatley

Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784)

Phillis Wheatley (175384), born

in Senegal, Africa. And brought to
America as a slave owned by a
Boston merchant. Her interest in
literature led her to write and
publish Poems on Various Subjects
in 1773. Even though she had
mastered the English at the age of
sixteen, her poetry was praised by
many of the leading figures of the
American Revolution, including
George Washington. Despite this,
many white people found it hard to
believe that a Black woman could be
so intelligent as to write poetry. As a
result, Wheatley had to defend
herself in court by proving she
actually wrote her own poetry.
First African American to publish a
book
First African American woman to

Wheatley wanted to prove that she is able to

master art just like whites or even better.

Phillis Wheatley, as an African American
Slave Woman wanted to assert her identity
through artistic creativity.