Summary of Dorothy E. Roberts's Killing the Black Body

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The control of Black women’s reproductive lives began with the experiences of slave women like Rose Williams. Their childbearing replenished the enslaved labor force, and their procreation was largely a result of oppression rather than self-definition.

#2 The control of slave women’s reproduction is a great example of the importance of reproductive liberty to women’s equality. The harms of treating women’s wombs as procreative vessels, policies that pit a mother’s welfare against that of her unborn child, and government manipulation of women’s childbearing decisions all come from the denial of reproductive liberty.

#3 The essence of Black women’s experience during slavery was the denial of autonomy over reproduction. Female slaves were commercially valuable to their masters not only for their labor, but also for their ability to produce more slaves.

#4 Slaveholders used many methods to increase the fertility of their female slaves, from giving them presents to manipulating their marital choices. Women who did not produce children were often sold off or worse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822500303

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Insights on Dorothy E. Roberts's Killing the Black Body

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The control of Black women’s reproductive lives began with the experiences of slave women like Rose Williams. Their childbearing replenished the enslaved labor force, and their procreation was largely a result of oppression rather than self-definition.

#2

The control of slave women’s reproduction is a great example of the importance of reproductive liberty to women’s equality. The harms of treating women’s wombs as procreative vessels, policies that pit a mother’s welfare against that of her unborn child, and government manipulation of women’s childbearing decisions all come from the denial of reproductive liberty.

#3

The essence of Black women’s experience during slavery was the denial of autonomy over reproduction. Female slaves were commercially valuable to their masters not only for their labor, but also for their ability to produce more slaves.

#4

Slaveholders used many methods to increase the fertility of their female slaves, from giving them presents to manipulating their marital choices. Women who did not produce children were often sold off or worse.

#5

Slavery was a cruel system, and slaveholders treated their slaves like commodities. They would attempt to pawn off infertile slaves on unsuspecting buyers.

#6

Some slaveowners also practiced slave-breeding by forcing their prime stock to mate in the hopes of producing children especially suited for labor or sale. While slave masters’ interest in enhancing slave fertility is well established, Fogel and Engerman argued that this was achieved through positive economic incentives rather than through massive breeding.

#7

Slaveholders had a financial stake in male slaves’ marital choices, as well as an interest in preventing them from falling in love with each other or with free Black people.

#8

The law reinforced the sexual exploitation of slave women in two ways: it deemed any child who resulted from the rape to be a slave, and it failed to recognize the rape of a slave woman as a crime.

#9

The racial injustice tied to rape is usually associated with Black men, but white men also used Black women sexually as a means of subjugating the entire Black community.

#10

The laws that governed sexual interactions between white people were not applicable to slaves. Their intercourse was considered promiscuous and was left to be regulated by their owners.

#11

The law did not recognize a crime against the slave herself, but some judges held that the rape of a female slave was grounds for divorce. Southern white women frequently cited in their divorce actions their husbands’ affection for slave women as the cause for the marital discord.

#12

While some white women were against the sexual aspect of slavery, most were not. They benefited from the system in many ways.

#13

The law granted to whites a devisable, in futuro interest in the potential children of their slaves. Wills frequently devised slave women’s children