Sasha Turner, Contested Bodies: Pregnancy, Childrearing, and Slavery in Jamaica'

Why did some estate managers hesitate to register enslaved infants in official records immediately after birth?

many enslaved infants died within the first 14 days of their births, some estate managers hesitated to register and include them in official plantation records until approximately 2 weeks after their birth

What example does Sasha Turner give of delayed registration of an enslaved child?

Catherine Toms birthed her daughter on 7th January 1831, and the overseer did not enter her into the slave register until 17th January

When did Catherine Toms give birth?

7th Jan 1831

When was Catherine Tom’s baby placed on an official registrar?

17th Jan 1831

Why were abolitionists concerned with how long enslaved mothers breastfed their children?

because successfully reproducing a new generation of slaves with the potential to become free people relied on enslaved children adopting British morals and values

What Latin legal doctrine tied the status of enslaved children to their mothers?

Partus sequitur ventrem

What does Partus sequitur ventrem mean?

"that which is born follows the womb"—ensuring children born to enslaved women were automatically enslaved

How did enslaved people resist imposed naming systems?

Enslaved people fashioned their own naming culture to recreate social identity and kinship

Give examples of enslaved children’s alternative names from fugitive slave advertisements.

Creole Castillo who goes by the name Cuffe

What example shows an enslaved father requesting a name change for his child?

On 19th February 1817, Neptune requested Matthew Lewis to change his son’s name from Oscar to Julius, after his grandfather

Who requested to change his son’s name from Oscar to Julius, after his grandfather?

Neptune

What name did Neptune request Matthew Lewis to change his son’s name to?

From Oscar to Julius, after his grandfather

Why did planters fear prolonged breastfeeding by enslaved women?

leading to idleness, weakness, and infertility

What did abolitionists like James Ramsay argue about enslaved mothers and children?

Ramsay argued mothers should nurse for no longer than six months, and that trusted nurses, not mothers, should raise enslaved children

What was the mortality rate among enslaved Jamaican newborns between 1817-1832?

250 per 1,000 newborns

When did Jamaican estates start inoculating enslaved workers against smallpox?

Beginning in the 1770s; in 1791, Phillipsfield vaccinated 196 workers in a single day

When was the vaccine establishment opened in Kingston and what impact did it have?

Opened in 1813; by 1820, smallpox was nearly eradicated among both free and enslaved populations

How did the 1807 slave trade ban change planter attitudes toward enslaved health?

It "compelled planters to shift their worldview from considering captive Africans only as commodities...to seeing themselves as responsible for enslaved people’s health, welfare, and survival"

Example of nursing mothers' resistance

9 women at Friendship estate, to resist shortened breastfeeding times, refused to work until permitted to suckle their babies