"Dat's one chile of mine you ain't never gonna sell": Gynecological Resistance within the Plantation Community

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dc.contributor.authorNeely, Caroline Elizabethen
dc.contributor.committeechairShifflett, Crandall A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberBanks, Ingriden
dc.contributor.committeememberBunch-Lyons, Beverlyen
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:38:38Zen
dc.date.adate2000-05-26en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:38:38Zen
dc.date.issued2000-05-19en
dc.date.rdate2001-05-26en
dc.date.sdate2000-05-26en
dc.description.abstractThe study of gynecological resistance as an integral part of the slave community has frequently been ignored in studies of the plantation South. Slave women actively engaged in both collective and individual acts of gynecological resistance. This work, "Dat's one chile of mine you ain't never gonna sell: Gynecological Resistance in the Plantation Community", explores enslaved women's use of birth control, abortion, and infanticide as a means to gain personal autonomy and control over their bodies. This study seeks to forge a collective narrative about the secret practices of slave women, while attempting to give them a voice of their own. Relying primarily on the WPA slave narratives, as well as the Virginia Plantation records, this thesis first seeks to examine cases of gynecological resistance, as well as the motivations behind these acts. This thesis argues that enslaved women used gynecological resistance as a means to maintain some personal autonomy and control over their bodies, as well as the bodies of their children. The study illustrates that these individual acts became collective resistance, when the community worked to aid and protect women, who committed acts of gynecological resistance by keeping their secrets from the master. Finally, this thesis demonstrates how individual acts of resistance became collective, or day-to-day, in the forms of oral narratives about gynecological resistance that were passed along for the purposes of instruction.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05262000-09340014en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05262000-09340014/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/33250en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartCarolinethesis.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectinfanticideen
dc.subjectresistanceen
dc.subjectsexual abuseen
dc.subjectenslaved womenen
dc.subjectgynecological resistanceen
dc.subjectbirth controlen
dc.subjectabortionen
dc.title"Dat's one chile of mine you ain't never gonna sell": Gynecological Resistance within the Plantation Communityen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineHistoryen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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