Mothers and WarriorsReflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves by Angela Davis

Who Is Angela Davis?

• Born 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama

• 1968 became a member of the Communist Party and as a result the University of California attempted to fire her in accordance to the regulation to ban Communist teachers

• 1970 Davis was suspected of murdering four people and wounding three people in the Marin County, California courtroom

• She fled the area and quickly became Federal Bureau of Investigations most wanted criminal, only to get arrested in New York

• She served sixteen years in prison and while incarcerated wrote ¨Reflections on a Black Woman´s Role in the Community of Slaves,¨ an essay aimed to challenge stereotypes of black women and reconsider their historical participation

Black Women in the Community of Slaves

Only a small amount of literature is published on black women, and for the most part the literature that does exist is full of fictitious clichés

In this essay Angela Davis wishes to frame a framework to conduct a reinvestigation of the black woman as she interacted with her people and with her oppressive environment during slavery

The ¨matriarchal black woman¨ has been repeatedly invoked as a direct effect of slavery

This false statement has its roots in the false belief that in playing a central role in the slave ¨family¨ the black woman related to the slaveholding class as collaborator

Who Was the Black Woman in Slavery?

• To say the black woman was a matriarch means she had ¨power¨ but the strong hand of the slave owner dominated the Negro family meaning she had no control nor power

• She however did ensure the survival of her people

• She was affected by the role that was dictated by the male supremacist ideology of white society in America, which meant that she was in charge of keeping the home in order

• However, she did not reap the benefits of being a ¨delicate¨ woman, she was not sheltered or protected

• She was also in the field alongside men, the black woman was treated with no greater compassion and with no less severity than her man

But Our Strength PrevailedBlack Women and Activism During Slavery

In Davis’ WorkAngela Davis brings out how women in the slave

community are not given their full credit on the work they did on resistance and ending of the slavery. She claims that the participation of black women in the

overt and explosive upheavals which constantly rocked the slave system must be confirmed.

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Many women made very large contributions to the end of slavery in different forms. Most of these women are not even noted for their work except the few such as

Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. And even in these cases their work is still grossly minimized.

The Black Woman’s Fight

Large numbers of freed women worked towards the purchase of their relatives and friends freedom.

Black women poisoned the food and set fire to the houses of their masters.

During the early years of 1708 a revolt broke out in New York, many women participated and 1 was executed along with three men for killing of 7 whites. While the men were killed she was burned alive

In 1712 women played an active role in an uprising in which slaves killed members of the slaveholding class, some of these insurgents were women, some were captured including a pregnant woman and another woman committed suicide rather than to surrender.

In New Orleans in 1730 a woman shouted at a French soldier after being given a blow for disobeying, along with 8 men this woman was executed

The Black Woman’s Fight

1732 in Louisiana a woman and 4 men leaders of a planned rebellion were executed had their heads publicly displayed.

1774 in saint Andrews parish, Georgia a group of women were arrested after they had killed a number of slave owners

In Alabama New York two women were among the 3 slaves executed for anti-slavery activities in 1794

These are just a few examples of women that played major roles in the resistance and abolition of slavery

When a maroon camp in Mississippi was destroyed in 1857, 4 slaves were unable to escape capture and one of them was a slave woman

Even in revolts and uprisings after that women did take part and many were killed for the cause but their stories remain untold.

Ain’t I A Woman?http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=eUdxsQ0Qsrc

No Crime, Vicious PunishmentThe Hypersexualization, Manipulation,Abuse and Rape of Black Women

“Right of the First Night”In feudal times, the lord asserted authority over female

servants by raping them.But they were still considered women…. we

were not.

The Power of Sexual Oppression

The Threat

Total manipulation through labor with no compensationHousekeeping and homemaking role different from white women’s position because of “double oppression”as an inferior race and gender.Not your ordinary damsel in distress

The Action

White Men made effort to erase the Black woman’s fight and resistance by claiming her body

Reducing her to an animal-like, hypersexualized object.

Used total domination to dismantle the Black woman mentally and spiritually

WWYD?

Imagine that you are a newly married man who is enslaved, forced by your master to whip, burn and

beat your own wife.

a) Do it, because you will be killed if you refuse

b) Run and risk violent deathc) Beg your master to beat you

instead, also risking violent death

Connection QuestionDo you think that the dynamic between the Black enslaved man, Black enslaved woman and White slaver impacts the African American community today? How so?

Sexual attack on slave

woman was a direct

attack on her

community and the

black man

Effect: Black man

questioning his ability

to protect his woman

and his people

What about us, here and now?Today, Black women still face the same kind of challenges in society centered on white supremacy and male dominance.

We are still hypersexualized, objectified, and manipulated.

Media, music: who is at the top? How are they benefiting from our subjugation?

Do not be mistaken…

#QUEENFact vs. Fiction

The myth is that we were the bottom of the barrel, sitting back and allowing Whites to tear us apart and annihilate

our communities by taking advantage of our spirits and bodies.

The truth is that we have been, are, and will be strong black warrior women: standing with our men, defending our

children, and leading resistance against all forms of attack on our communities.

Thank You!Questions? Comments?

Kill final exams and have a great winter break!