Child Bearing: The Choice To Have A Baby

Though many of us young readers will see this period as a dark time, Mark Fiege saw otherwise. He saw this physically beneficial and destructive to nature. Cotton was the number one growing cash crop in the nineteenth century, and is still beneficial today. “Nineteenth-century southern slavery unfolded from a symbiotic relationship between cotton and people. Synthesizing water, soil nutrients, atmospheric gases, and sunlight, cotton produced seed pods filled with a fiber and that humans found enormously useful and profitable”(102). This caused a high demand for slaves which caused the increase of costs in slaves and the kidnapping of freed slaves. While farmers were increasing in wealth and so was the population of African slaves. It marked the first time in history for the population of White folks to be smaller than the population of Africans. It had come to a point where farmers were seeking labor from the infants of slave women. However, with insufficient nutrition, the mothers bore small, weak children. But if their baby survived birth, the mothers rejoiced, for they would receive time off work to rest and nurture the children. But, the farmers grew impatient and saw work more as a priority than the newborns. “Mortality increased dramatically at those times, as cotton accumulated at the cost of children’s lives. Infancy and early childhood were a grim struggle for many enslaved children. Fewer than half survived to age five, a mortality rate roughly double that of America’s free population”(123).Though cotton provided much assistance to humans, it also caused the downfall to

During the times of slavery, black women were forcefully impregnated both in order to maintain the institution of slavery and as an economic incentive for white slave owners to control the reproductive lives of black women. A black woman’s child was considered the property of her slave owner from the moment of conception. This key feature in the institution of slavery gave whites the ultimate power of repression against blacks in America. Despite this fact, black women fought back. They took initiatives such as self-induced miscarriage in order to not bear a child. Unfortunately, these women were punished for taking such initiatives; however, they were reprimanded for the wrong reasons. As Robert demonstrates:

African American women were look upon to keep the reproduction of the slave population. The

3). Also, slave woman is considered more valuable due to the child. The law enacted in Virginia shows masters' goal to profit from the children of slaves, "In 1662, Virginia lawmakers specified that the children of slave mothers inherited their mothers' slave status" ("Virginia Servants and Slave Laws," in Handout Set, p. 2). Under theses harsh circumstances, servants and slaves, regardless of gender and ethnicity, tend to work together and that became a great fear of the ruling class.

In a time period when women were considered inferior, as were blacks, it was unimaginable the horrors a black woman in the south had to endure during this period. African women were slaves and subject to the many horrors that come along with being in bondage, but because they were also women, they were subject to the cruelties of men who look down on women as inferior simply because of their sex. The sexual exploitation of these females often lead to the women fathering children of their white masters. Black women were also prohibited from defending themselves against any type of abuse, including sexual, at the hands of white men. If a slave attempted to defend herself she was often subjected to further beatings from the master. The black female was forced into sexual relationships for the slave master’s pleasure and profit. By doing this it was the slave owner ways of helping his slave population grow.

In Celia, a Slave, written by Melton A. McLaurin, the relationships of race, gender, sexuality, power, law, and slavery in the antebellum South is revealed by Celia’s case. In antebellum South, many things dictated a person’s worth, but the race of a person was the number one factor. If a person was of a race other than Caucasian, such as being Black, then he or she would live in the United States as one of two classifications: slave or freed slave. Of these two classifications, both were thought as being subpar humans when compared to white citizens. Due to these beliefs regarding Blacks, slave and free, Blacks themselves were unable to protect themselves from slave masters and in most legal standings (McLaurin 137). This means that Blacks did not have the same citizenship as white people because a slave was not a citizen in the eyes of the law but the human property of his or her master. Gender is the second idea that dictated a person’s worth and character. Males, white particularly, always held more power and sexual control over the women of the antebellum South. White women, when married, became the legal property of her husband (139). Even if a woman was not married, then she was still considered the property of her father and under his protection until she was given away. For example, Virginia Waynescot and Mary Newsome both lived with their father, Robert Newsome (10-11). By living with their father, the two daughters basically handed over their power because Robert

The period of the antebellum south was among the most burdensome times for African American slaves, especially females. During the early 1800s the lives of enslaved women were extremely demanding. The female slaves were expected to bear children, as well as were required to work just as hard as the male slaves on the plantation. Days were long and laborious for slave mothers, they had to make sure that all the work that needed to be done was completed, and also care for their children. Female slaves’ jobs varied from housework, to field work. Slave mothers knew that giving up on their work was not an option, they had to persevere for their families. Motherhood and work went hand in hand for female slaves, one was not able to do one and not the other.

During the antebellum South, many Africans, who were forced migrants brought to America, were there to work for white-owners of tobacco and cotton plantations, manual labor as America expanded west, and as supplemental support of their owner’s families. Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative supports the definition of slavery (in the South), discrimination (in the North), sexual gender as being influential to a slave’s role, the significant role of family support, and how the gender differences viewed and responded to life circumstances.

lthough the enslaved women were married, their husbands could not protect them because of the control that the masters had over both spouses. Many times, due to rape and sexual intercourses between the slave and masters, both white and African American women had to keep their pregnancies hidden and they were not allowed to speak on who the father of the babies were. Often times black women would rebel against their masters because they felt it was morally wrong and often like "their ancestors and counterparts of Africa, most slave women took their motherhood seriously. They put this responsibilities before their own safety and freedom, provided for children not their own, and gave love even to those babies born from violence." (Hallam, 2004) . If a enslaved women, who had children, were to tell who the child's

As it was common for large amounts of African slaves to live on one plantation, families began to become prevalent among slave communities. Slave owners actually encouraged marraige because it generally meant better moral among the slaves and thus less opposition, as well as, because slave marraiges meant children which would become the slave owner’s next generation of laborers. Therefore, slave families grew quickly and became a key aspect of slave culture. Instead of relying on friends on the plantation, slaves had their families to go back to. Black mothers found great joy and happiness in their newborns, even though childbirth deaths were common, but

During the time of slavery, not only were African Americans were treated unfairly, but their women had it worse at times; African American women would be raped would be raped by their owners, or be trafficked around from man to man (Browne-Marshall). The white man was seen as evil, disgusting and cruel, so being a black woman carrying a white man’s child was basically

There were three ways to be born into slavery. The most desirable- from a buyers perspective- was the product of two good, obedient slaves with exceptional physical characteristics and personalities. The magnanimous and coveted reward for producing such offspring was Freedom. Freedom requires a Sacrifice. The second, derived from Roman law- the legal status of the child, followed the legal status of the mother. Long had it been a comic staple that a slave bare a striking resemblance to an esteemed and powerful gentleman. Lastly, and this reality polite society wanted to sweep under the rug- a young woman- certain of the affections of a young man and then deceived and deprived of such- would find herself in a situation. In possession of that which she could not afford to keep; but for which she could receive a tidy sum for herself and preserve her dignity. These, they call The Abandoned.

Should the decision of delivering a child vaginally or cesarean reside in the physician or the mother? Afterall, it is the mother who will be enduring the pain of labor, possible complications, or postsurgical recovery. Many women who want c-sections believe it should be illegal to make someone go through labor. Is it ethically appropriate to perform a cesarean delivery on a maternal request at term in an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy because of the risks of surgery (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2013)? In labor and delivery, we never know when a baby may take a turn for the worse, so scheduling a safe c-section could fix that. These days many women are choosing to have surgery over the traditional

As stated above, historians have debated on the impact that enslaved women being in polygamous relationships with their masters counterbalanced the population loss from the slave trade. The debate is not on the practice of polygamy itself, but instead it focuses on the fertility and birth rates that were impacted by the increased practice of polygamy. Two of the major historians behind this debate are J.D. Fage and Patrick Manning, and they are on opposite sides of the issue. Below, both historians’ arguments will be analyzed. We will start by discussing Fage’s argument, and then discuss Manning’s and why this is the argument that is most convincing about the impact of polygamy.

Birth of a child can be such a happy time, especially when the little one is very healthy. We all have seen the movies when a new child is born, some of us are lucky to see it first hand. Some of us do get goose bumps, me being one of them. It is just so exciting to see that little life come out of what has been in that big belly for nine months. We sometimes refer to the birth of a child as labor. If only it was as easy as the name sounds. However, it is not. There are three main stages in birth. The first stage is the longest stage that can last 12 to 14 hours with the first birth, and later births are shorter. Dilation and effacement of the cervix take place here. That is when the uterine contractions gradually become more frequent and