The Black Proximity to White Society
How have black people have been deemed as inferior by white supremacy while being interwoven in the personal lives of white people?
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The services ‘provided’ by black people via enslavement have always been an integral part of the progression of white societies around the globe. Black people being held as slaves is what made America as prosperous as it is today. Two hundred fifty years of free labor will do that. These services, however, move past the manual labors of carpentry, building, and masonry.
Slaves were intimately involved in the lives of their masters and their master’s families. It is peculiar that enslaved black people were always seen as lesser than white masters, yet, played such an essential role in their personal lives. Slaves were dehumanized beyond belief, of course, but the vast plantations of the south could not run without a multitude of enslaved black people at the ready performing a myriad of household and field tasks.
Stephanie Devane-Johnson held focus groups asking black women, ranging in age from 18 to 89 years old, on their thoughts on breastfeeding. She was performing research for a doctoral degree at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing. She mentioned in her report:
“A lot of slave babies died during slavery because they weren’t breastfed. They were fed concoctions of dirty water and cows milk. Meanwhile, those children’s mothers were giving white children their milk.”
Written below is a firsthand account from former slave Ellen Betts recounting life as a wet nurse in St. Mary’s Parish, Louisiana. This excerpt is from the book, ‘Bullwhip Days — The Slaves remember’ by James Mellon. You can find more information on Ms. Betts’ life at the Library of Congress website.
“And I tell you dat Marse William was de greates’ man what ever walk dis earth….Mis’ Sidney was my marster’s fust wife and he had six boys by her. Den he marry de widder Cornelia and she give him four boys. With ten chillun springin’ up quick lak dat and all de cullud chillun comin’ along fast as pig litters, I don’t do nothin’ all my days but nuss, nuss, nuss…I nuss so many chillun it done went and stunted my growth.”
[“And I tell you that Master William was the greatest’ man that ever walked this Earth…Miss Sidney was my master’s first wife and he had six boys by her. Then, he married the widow Cornelia, and she gave him four boys. With ten children springing up quick like that and all the colored children coming along fast as pig litters, I didn’t do anything during all my days but nurse, nurse, nurse…I nursed so many children it stunted my growth.”]
Enslaved black women raised white children before tending to their own. Enslaved black women nursed white babies before nursing their own.
The aspect of infant and child care is typically left out of media where American chattel slavery is depicted. I can only imagine how many black babies were malnourished or died due to the white children on the plantation getting their rightful nutrients.
Now, operating under the assumption that all white people were just disgusted by black people’s inferiority, would it make sense for them to give black people so much intimate access to their lives?
Wouldn’t you detest filthy black skin touching your white children? Wouldn’t it sicken you to let your innocent, pure white baby drink inferior breast-milk from a black woman’s breast? Wouldn’t you loathe the idea of your white children to be raised by feeble-minded, unintelligent black women?
What is the answer? Hypocrisy.
Black people, under the lens of slavery, have always been just “good enough” for cooking, cleaning, procreating, child-rearing, manual labor, and sex but never good enough to have agency over their own bodies.
Just “good enough” to raise white children
Just “good enough” to nurse white babies
Just “good enough” to be raped and to mother the children of their masters
Elizabeth Keckley was a civil rights activist, talented seamstress, confidante to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and a rape victim. She was raped repeatedly by a white man (who she never named), and her only child was born from those assaults.
“I was regarded as fair-looking for one of my race, and for four years a white man — I spare the world his name — had base designs upon me. I do not care to dwell upon this subject, for it is one that is fraught with pain. Suffice it to say, that he persecuted me for four years, and I — I — became a mother. The child of which he was the father was the only child that I ever brought into the world.”
This is another example that can be used to aid in the dismantling of white supremacy. White people would not have placed the future of the white race, their children, into the hands of black people if they genuinely believed we were animals. I think they told themselves we were inferior in order to justify our enslavement, but I do not think for a single second that they all TRULY believed that.
As I said before if I thought black women were so detestable and disgusting, why would I want to have sex with one? Why would I want to father a child/children with one? Why would I want my white children to be looked after by one? Logically speaking, you wouldn’t. But that’s just it:
