The working life of a slave woman

I am reading a book entitled "Black Ivory", by James Walvin, the history of British.

The author expands on the complex economic system of the Atlantic slave trade within Africa, extending to the slave colonies. Very insightful.

It is important to emphasis that slavery already existed before the Europeans carried out their initial maritime raid in West Africa. Different types of slavery were prevalent to Africa, and consisted of slavery for debt, for punishment of crime, certain types of marriages, prisoners of war and so on. Africans had to grab other Africans through kidnapping and raids to facilitate slave trade. Arab merchants recruited Africans in abundance. However, this was a relatively small trade in comparison to the Atlantic slave trade.

Of the millions of Africans shipped across the Atlantic, the majority were men. Women slaves were not thought to be as valuable in the beginning , although in time proved women to be more important than initially imagined by slave owners. The most important reasoning behind this was that women could produce new generations of slaves. All slaves were exploited people, but female slaves endured extra dimensions of exploitation, as they were also used as breeding animals, and where sexually exploited by white slave owners throughout the America's.

Women imported from Africa endured the traumas of the crossing and the indignities of arrival. Shielded at first, they gradually became acclimatised to field work , but in the process a substantial number died.

Slave women worked in all sorts of occupations throughout the slave colonies. They worked as prostitutes in towns, seaports, local taverns, field-hands, breeding animals, and home/house labourers. In short, a slave woman in her younger years was a valuable home worker, as she grew she transitioned to a source of sexual pleasure for her master, and a breeding wench. Her offspring, security for continuing fortunes of her owners.

The author notes, that to a degree, historians have more recently begun to appreciate the failings and the successes of the various slave colonies need to be seen through the experiences of the female slaves. I agree, the slave woman endured the imaginable. From the day she boards the slave ship, till the day she arrives in a strange land. Many slaves perished during the passage, by succumbing to disease, ill-health due to no nutrition, fatigue, to name a few. In my own way, this post is a tribute to the strength, resilience of a black woman. She persevered through it all!