White Mothers and Enslaved Wet Nurses' Invisible Labor in American Slave Markets

White Mothers and Enslaved Wet Nurses' Invisible Labor in American Slave Markets

Event Date

Location
2203 SSH
November 8 12 pm - 1pm 2203 SSH

Professor Jones-Roger examines the market that white mothers created for enslaved wet nurses and the ways that this market intersected with slave marketplaces. White mothers' demands for enslaved wet nurses transformed bondwomen's ability to suckle into a largely invisible yet skilled form of labor. In these ways, white mothers were crucial to the commodification of enslaved women's reproductive bodies, their breast milk, and the nutritive and maternal care they provided to white children.