In her native Africa, the Black woman had spent a respectful existence, with strong family ties. In America, as a slave, she had suddenly lost all the privileges she had enjoyed in Africa. Reduced to less than human status, the Black woman was subjected to the hardest labor, to the separation from her family, to the harshest punishments, and to ignorance. Lacking status and rights, she became not only an easy target to men, both white and Black, but also suffered from the hatred of white women.

ORIGINS OF BLACK WOMEN

Black African women were brought to America in the late seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries; the majority came from West African societies. When they were established into American society, they were adults with ideas and beliefs that were determined by their African past. To America, they brought with them their languages, religious beliefs, musical styles, cooking practices, and many other aspects of their societies.

It is well known that West African women were traders. They participated in the making and selling of goods of various kinds such as cloth, or pottery. They were also responsible for planting crops and preserving them. They worked both as farmers and merchants. Moreover, their role as mothers was their most important function. In Africa, women were considered like gods, because they bore children. As a result, their presence would guarantee the future of the nation.

African women were raised in a society in which the concept of motherhood was very important. In fact, for them, to be a mother was more important than to be a wife. However, they were independent, and had the control over both their families and their markets. African societies valued women for both their productive and reproductive abilities. They were used to perform a high variety of tasks, in the fields as well as in the domestic household; a role which would be well assumed later on the American plantations. African women were easily captured by white slavers who often kidnapped women important to the tribe like the King’s daughter, but most were warriors, or artisans. They became easy targets for white slavers, as they could not resist capture in the hands of kidnappers.

For African women, the middle passage from Africa to America was a terrifying one-way trip from which they didn’t expect to return. They had no idea about both their destination, and the reason of their deportation. They represented one-third of the human cargo aboard most ships. They were given the worst food, and no chance to move. When the crew had found that some had died, their bodies were thrown to the sea. They were physically weak, and totally unarmed to try to rebel. Indeed, white slavers could exploit and brutalize them without fear of revenge.

African women entered a land which viewed them not as humans with rights, but as property controlled by others; however, the system of slavery did not destroy the African concept of the family. As a matter of fact, Black women worked in the homes of white families, raising their children, while also raising their own children. They worked long hours to gather the food, and more important, they continued to teach their descendants the ways and traditions of their African ancestors.

African women contributed to the edification of the plantation system in America. They were exploited, and their energies benefited to the construction of wealth to their owners. Their labor was both forced and unpaid. They were human property, humiliated and abused. Being most of the time overworked and underfed, their life chances were very limited, and few could expect to acquire freedom; however, African women managed to survive. They escaped and rebelled, challenging the power of their masters. Their existence was not only a story of extreme suffering, but also a story of the struggle for the survival of their race.

BLACK WOMEN BEFORE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

Black women who were transported to the New World had been separated from their families. They were traumatized during the voyage, being harshly treated by the white slaver who wanted to destroy the dignity of African people, and to eliminate any sign of African heritage. He used various methods of torture and punishments to dehumanize African women, so that they would adapt easily to the white colonizer’s supremacy.

During their journey from Africa to America, Black women were often whipped and brutalized by their masters. They were also raped and tortured in the most violent manner, and for them it was better to be dead than to live in these horrible conditions.  A lot of women gave birth aboard ship, and most of them died during childbirth. White slavers also tortured children to see the torment of their mothers; for example, a child who refused to eat was either put in a pot of boiling water, or thrown over-board.

When African women arrived to the New World, they were sold at slave auctions. Being often exposed naked, they were rudely examined and dehumanized. This was to indicate to the public that they were not humans who had feelings and dignity, but rather sub-humans. Once they were purchased by their owners, they were brought to the plantations in which they had to work long hours from dusk until dawn. Black women worked in the fields: they planted crops, cultivated rice, cut cane and tobacco, and picked cotton. They were expected to do three quarters of the field work a man could do; they did the same jobs as men, using heavy iron tools to hoe. Black women cooked, cleaned, did laundry, sewed, and cared for infants, but were never rewarded. Instead, they were often insulted, whipped, or even sexually assaulted.

During her working life, a Black woman could spend much of her time pregnant, because she risked sale if she remained without children; moreover, medical care was usually unavailable for pregnant slave women. Black women were neglected because they were thought to be stronger, gave birth more easily, and needed less care than white women. On plantations, women had to take their babies with them to the fields; they put them on their backs, and worked without caring for them, otherwise, they would be whipped.

Slave women did their best to stabilize their families; the mother, rather than the father was the dominant figure, as very often, the slave father was sold away from his family. Indeed, couples were most often separated, and children could be sold away from their parents. In addition to the sale of their children or spouses, Black women were raped by their owners. Rape was a method to terrorize and de-humanize Black women. If they resisted their master’s sexual exploitation, they were forced to appear naked before male whippers, and were publicly whipped.