Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 16501832

Illustrations vii Maps ix Preface xi The `invisible' black woman in Caribbean history: an introduction 1(10) `The eye of the beholder': contemporary European Images of black women 11(12) Slave society, power and law: the institutional context of slave women's lives 23(10) Plantation labour regimes: the economic role of slave women 33(18) Women in the formal plantation economy 33(13) Informal economic activities: the provision ground and the slave market 46(5) The woman slave and slave resistance 51(32) Day-to-Day resistance 52(11) Female slave runaways 63(2) Traitor or Amazon? Women in the slave uprisings 65(8) African Religion and slave resistance 73(4) The transition to freedom 77(4) Summary 81(2) `The family tree is not cut': the domestic life of the woman slave 83(37) The black family reassessed 84(7) The black matriarch: slave motherhood in the African cultural context 91(3) The myth of black female promiscuity 94(4) Marriage and divorce 98(5) Parenthood 103(2) Kinship and community 105(3) Slave sales and enforced separation 108(2) `Hot Constitution'd ladies': black women, power and sexuality 110(8) Summary 118(2) Slave motherhood: childbirth and infant death in a cross-cultural perspective 120(31) Patterns of slave reproduction: contemporary explanations re-examined 121(11) To breed or labour? Women, childbirth and the plantation regime 132(5) Reluctant mothers: conscious and unconscious limits on fertility 137(6) Low fertility or high Mortality? Some reflections on slave infant death 143(6) An enduring enigma 149(2) `Daughters of Injur'd Africk': Women, culture and community in slave society 151(17) Endnote: Out of bondage: black women and the spirit of freedom 162(6) Notes 168(4) Bibliography 172(11) Index 183