". . . a much-needed volume on a neglected topic that is of great interest to scholars of women, slavery, and African American history." Drew Faust

Gender was a decisive force in shaping slave society. Slave men's experiences differed from those of slave women, who were exploited both in reproductive as well as productive capacities. The women did not figure prominently in revolts, because they engaged in less confrontational resistance, emphasizing creative struggle to survive dehumanization and abuse.

The contributors are Hilary Beckles, Barbara Bush, Cheryl Ann Cody, David Barry Gaspar, David P. Geggus, Virginia Meacham Gould, Mary Karasch, Wilma King, Bernard Moitt, Celia E. Naylor-Ojurongbe, Robert A. Olwell, Claire Robertson, Robert W. Slenes, Susan M. Socolow, Richard H. Steckel, and Brenda E. Stevenson.

DAVID BARRY GASPAR, Professor of History at Duke University, is the author of Bondmen and Rebels. DARLENE CLARK HINE, John A. Hannah Professor of American History at Michigan State University, is the author of several books, including Black Women in White. She is co-editor of Black Women in America.

Preface

Africa and the Americas
1. Africa in to the Americas? Slavery and Women, the Family and the Sexual Division of LaborClaire Robertson

Life and Labor
2. Women, Work, and Health under Plantation Slavery in the Untied StatesRichard H. Steckel
3. Cycles of Work and of Childbearing: Seasonality in Women's Lives on Low Country PlantationsCheryll Ann Cody
4. Slave Women on the Brazilian Frontier in the Nineteenth CenturyMary Karasch
5. "Loose, idle and Disorderly": Slave Women int he Eighteenth-Century Charleston MarketplaceRobert A. Olwell
6. Black Female Slaves and White Households in BarbadosHilary Beckles
7. Black Homes, White Homilies: Perceptions of the Slave Family and of Slave Women in Nineteenth-Century BrazilRobert W. Slenes
8. "Suffer with Them Till Death": Slave Women and Their Children in Nineteenth-Century AmericaWilma King
9. Gender Convention, Ideals, and Identity Among Antebellum Virginia Slave WomenBrenda E. Stevenson

Slavery, REsistance, and Freedom
10. Hard Labor: Women, Childbirth and Resistance in British Caribbean Slave SocietiesBarbara Bush
11. From "the Sense of their Slavery": Slave Women and Resistance in Antigua, 16321763David Barry Gaspar
12. Slave Women and Resistance in the French CaribbeanBernard Moitt
13. Slave and Free Colored Women in Saint DomingueDavid P. Geggus
14. Economic Roles of the Free Women of Color of Cap FrancaisSusan M. Socolow
15. Urban Slavery, Urban Freedom: The Manumission of Jacqueline LemelleL. Virginia Gould

Selected Bibliography
Celia E. Naylor-Ojurongbe
Notes on Contributors

Index