Representations of Slave Women in Discourses on Slavery and Abolition, 1780-1838

This book analyzes textual representations of Jamaican slave women in three contexts--motherhood, intimate relationships, and work--in both pro- and antislavery writings. Altink examines how British abolitionists and pro-slavery activists represented the slave women to their audiences and explains not only the purposes that these representations served, but also their effects on slave women's lives.

Henrice Altink is a lecturer in history at the University of York.

Part 1: Incompetent Mothers 1. Belly-Women 2. Pickeniny Mummas Part 2: Adulterous Wives 3. Deviant and Dangerous: Attitudes to Slave Women's Sexuality 4. Slave Marriage: Solution or Problem? Part 3: Unruly Workers 5. The Indecency of the Lash 6. Slavery by Another Name 7. Conclusion