Unyielding Spirits: Black Women and Slavery in Early Canada and JamaicaThis comparative study uncovers the differences and similarities in the experiences of Black women enslaved in colonial Canada and Jamaica, and demonstrates how differences in the exploitation of women's productive and reproductive labor caused slavery to falter in Canada and excel in the Caribbean. The research suggests that while the majority of Black women enslaved in early Canada were domestics, the majority of Jamaican women were field laborers, often performing some of the most labor-intensive work on the sugar plantations. While the efforts of the planter class to increase the number of children born to Jamaican women were not completely successful, reproduction seems to have been less of a concern in Canada where many Black women were often sold or freed because there was no use for them. The Canadian slave context seems to have allowed a broader range of material comfort as well. Despite obvious labor differences, Black women in Canada and Jamaica rejected their chattel status and condition, and resisted slavery similarly. This study is unique in its desire and ability to place Black Canadian slave women at the center of research, and then contextualize it with a Caribbean model. |
Other editions - View all
Unyielding Spirits: Black Women and Slavery in Early Canada and Jamaica Maureen G. Elgersman No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
abolition abolitionist African American Atlantic slave trade Bertley Black Canadian Black Loyalists Black slave women British Canada Brunswick Canada and Jamaica Canada Gazette Canadian Caribbean chattel status climate Code Noir Collins colonial Canada Consolidated Act Craton culture domestic early Canada enslaved Blacks escape female slaves field laborers forms of resistance freedom fugitive slaves gang gender Greaves Higman House of Assembly Ibid identified institution Jamaican House Jamaican slave Jeune Journal Lewis Lower Canada Marie Marguerite Rose Maroons marronage microfilm MG 15 Montreal named NAQM narrative Negro noted Nova Scotia Ontario overseers PANB percent plantation economy Pooley Pooley's productive and reproductive Quebec Gazette records regime reproductive labor residents Riddell sexual slave law slave owners slave population slave societies slavery in Canada sold Subsistence and Regulation sugar suggests Toronto United University Press Upper Canada William Winks woman women in Canada women in Jamaica Worthy Park York