“Slave Mothers”, Partus Sequitur Ventrem, and the Naturalization of Slave Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

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Main Author: Martha S. Santos
Format: Artículo científico
Language:en
Published: Universidade Federal Fluminense 2016
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author Martha S. Santos
author_facet Martha S. Santos
contents “Slave Mothers”, Partus Sequitur Ventrem, and the Naturalization of Slave Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Brazil Martha S. Santos Historia Slave mothers slave reproduction partus sequitur ventrem Through an examination of slaveholders’ discourses on the need to find ways to replenish the slave labor force after the 1831 legal suppression of the African trade, this article demonstrates the centrality of female slave reproduction to the most significant debates on slavery and emancipation during the nineteenth century. Through tropes and metaphors that appealed to nature, this slaveholding discourse emphasized reproduction and mothering labor as the “natural” function of enslaved women – a function that would also serve to pacify rebellious male slaves. This work also demonstrates that, within a context of intensified symbolic value of enslaved women’s reproduction, slaveholders and jurists emphasized the validity of the legal device partus sequitur ventrem in order to communicate a notion of the legality of slavery, precisely at the time of increasing delegitimation of the institution, both within and outside Brazil. 2016 artículo científico 1413-7704 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=167047720002 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=1670 Tempo application/pdf Universidade Federal Fluminense Tempo (Brasil) Num.41 Vol.22
format Artículo científico
id redalyc_167047720002
institution Redalyc
language en
publishDate 2016
publisher Universidade Federal Fluminense
spellingShingle “Slave Mothers”, Partus Sequitur Ventrem, and the Naturalization of Slave Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Brazil
Martha S. Santos
Historia
Slave mothers
slave reproduction
partus sequitur ventrem
“Slave Mothers”, Partus Sequitur Ventrem, and the Naturalization of Slave Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Brazil Martha S. Santos Historia Slave mothers slave reproduction partus sequitur ventrem Through an examination of slaveholders’ discourses on the need to find ways to replenish the slave labor force after the 1831 legal suppression of the African trade, this article demonstrates the centrality of female slave reproduction to the most significant debates on slavery and emancipation during the nineteenth century. Through tropes and metaphors that appealed to nature, this slaveholding discourse emphasized reproduction and mothering labor as the “natural” function of enslaved women – a function that would also serve to pacify rebellious male slaves. This work also demonstrates that, within a context of intensified symbolic value of enslaved women’s reproduction, slaveholders and jurists emphasized the validity of the legal device partus sequitur ventrem in order to communicate a notion of the legality of slavery, precisely at the time of increasing delegitimation of the institution, both within and outside Brazil. 2016 artículo científico 1413-7704 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=167047720002 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=1670 Tempo application/pdf Universidade Federal Fluminense Tempo (Brasil) Num.41 Vol.22
title “Slave Mothers”, Partus Sequitur Ventrem, and the Naturalization of Slave Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Brazil
topic Historia
Slave mothers
slave reproduction
partus sequitur ventrem
url https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=167047720002