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WET NURSE SLAVERY (WOMEN STUDIES HISTORY)

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Wet nurse slavery (women studies history)

Abstract

Wet nursing is a very unique and specific gendered kind of exploitation and therefore in slavery

the wet nursing highlighted the exploitation of the women enslaved as workers. It was an

important practice facilitated the survival of small kids who have been left by their mothers after

death during delivery or after delivery. However, it is a practice which is highly complicated by

the cultural practices and hope of the women as well as the pressures of the religious views. This

article examines the historical context of wet nursing between the white and black women in the

global post-anticipation and the exploitation of the specific slave women.

The act of feeding someone child with one’s milk was a form labor although it was only reliable

to women who had born their own kids. Moreover, the exploitation of the enforced wet nursing

comprised a specific aspect of commodification of the women enslaved (Cleveland, pg. 23). The

act of a black woman holding a white child to her breast with the aim of providing sustenance

using their own milk would give much resonance for the historians who have interest on slavery,

gender and the interaction between the white and black women. Additionally, white women

used other mothers to bring up their children to manipulate the enslaved women’s motherhood

for the specific individuals.

Introduction
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Background of the study

Wet nursing is the act or practice of a lactating woman feeding another woman’s child with her

own milk. The practice has been recommended and authorized by the World Health Organization

(WHO) as well the UNICEF Global strategy on the young kids feeding practices in the scenarios

where the infant’s mother is mot in a position of feeding it (Winer, pg. 305). Wet nursing has

widely been done widely and therefore it has a broad history which is accepted by the society in

consideration to the people’s culture and the religious practices despite it becoming a way of

slavery among the black women during the 19th century.

Prior literature review on the medical social, cultural and related religious factors which either go

hand in hand or stand against the practice of wet nursing shows how the recommendation can be

applied in aid of saving the child’s life (Cleveland, pg. 25). However , the components specified

in the review which highly make the wet nursing possible to undertake include a broad

acceptance within a community , its culture and religion; the necessity of breast milk; the

common will of both the wet nurses and mothers as well as the appropriate approval and support

from the healthcare organizations and the people in power, the access to the consultants or nurses

who deal with lactating mothers who provide the essential information to the wet nurses, and

screening of the breast milk.

on the other hand, the practice of wet nursing can be hindered by the promotion of the artificial

feeding, the fear of transmitting deadly diseases to the children, the cost of travel for the wet

nurses, the wet nurses unwillingness to breastfeeding the children using their own milk,

inadequate facilities and unclear protocols and support means by the healthcare facilities and

health authorities (Winer, pg. 307). However, it is evident that the historical contexts and
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practices of wet nursing greatly shaped the relationship of women from all races (black and

white women).

Objectives of the study

1) To evaluate the social views of the wet nurses

2) To discuss the availability and importance of breastfeeding children

3) To evaluate the reasons why the women hired other women to be the wet nurses for their

children and the impacts of the practice to the family.

Research question

Breastfeeding other person’s child, a practice referred to as wet nursing has been helpful to the

kids who are left after the death of their mothers but is the practice safe to the child, the family

and the society at large?

Research design / method

The study was conducted in 2020 two hundred thousand households in the United States of

America. The participants who were willing to participate in the study were more than three

quarter of the U.S population. The method use to collect the data was use of questionnaires and

observation. The willing participants were issued with questionnaires that were properly

designed to fill (Cleveland, pg. 27). The participants involved in the process of filling the

questionnaires were lactating mothers and the women who have employed wet nurses in the

homesteads to bring up their children. The participants were then guided on how to fill the

questionnaires. The questionnaire were then collected immediately after the participants filled

them containing the data about the key reasons of wet nursing as well as its positive and negative

effects to the family and the whole society.

Results of the study

After reviewing the questionnaires and evaluating the various views of the participants, it was

found that most white women employ wet nurses to bring their children to be able to continue

with their jobs despite some few cases whereby the wet nurses were employed to breastfeed the

children whom their mothers are not in a position to breastfeed them or have died (Winer, pg.

314). Additionally, the historical practices of wet nursing have influenced the social attitudes

towards wet nursing, the clinical procedures and legislations governing the practice.

Discussion

The wet nursing existed in the world during 18 th and 19th century until reliable infant formula

was invented in 20th century. The practice would be necessary when the mother is not able to

produce adequate milk for her baby due to unavoidable circumstances or not willing to breast

feed the child (Cleveland, pg. 28). Some chronic illness or a long term treatment could lead to

the inability of the mother to produce breast milk.

Moreover, if the mother of the child is under a clinical dose as per the prescription of the drugs,

she might be forced to nesseciate a wet nurse to save the life of the infant. The rise in the need of

wet nurses also increased due to the abandonment of small infants by their parents (Winer, pg.

318). The women who are thought to be of higher classes in the 19 th century chose not to breast

their children since they would refer breastfeeding to as unfashionable. Additionally, the

irresponsibility of the husbands of the women possessing businesses would make them employ

wet nurse to be able to run the business since hiring someone to run the business for them would

be expensive for them as compared to the wet nurses.

Conclusion

Since the wet nurses are valued for their unlimited performance in their job some cultures may

facilitate the hiring process of the wet nurses whereby they could be employed just like any other
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employee. However, in other cultures the wet nurses may have a special relationship with entire

family such the kinship rights.

Annotated bibliography

Winer, Rebecca Lynn. "The enslaved wet nurse as nanny: the transition from free to slave labor

in childcare in Barcelona after the Black Death (1348)." Slavery & Abolition 38.2 (2017):

303-319.

The author analyses how white people have changed from hiring free wet nurses to purchasing

the enslaved black women to nurse their children. The reason was because the supply of the

slaves had increased a phenomenon that made the enslaved wet nurses more available and

reliable. Moreover, the women involved had their own children because the labor market favored

them. The article touches the negotiations which benefited the wet nurses such as bringing up

their own children with the one of their employers. However, the authors state why the white

women did not want the women with their own children because they were afraid that they

would leave their positions over the ones with good characters. The enslaved women had no

ability and power to negotiate with their employers about themselves or their children or when

she wants to resign from service and therefore this made them more desirable to the buyers.

Cleveland, Kimberly. "Rosana Paulino and Tiago Sant’Ana. Locating The “Sustenance” of

Slavery in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Art." Esclavages & Post-esclavages. Slaveries

& Post-Slaveries 2 (2020).

The authors of this article focused on exploring the different historical era of the enslaved wet

nurse whereby her breast milk was used to feed the infants of the white women. Sant’Ana talks
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about the use of sugar as an artistic medium and also states the role of enslaved Black women in

the plantations situated at the Northeastern part of the Brazil. The use of sugar was meant to

approximate the author to the history of slavery of the black people as well as the inequality in

terms of gender and race. The enslaved wet nurse connects her with the other black women who

have been marginalized owing to their motherland as far as race and gender is concerned. Both

authors are concerned with the visual archive of slavery in Brazil as the session of their artistic

designs. The book also explores the practice within broader contexts of the mothers in various

regimes. The patterns of wet nursing vary within different historical contexts and hence the

practice would involve bad actions of women who shared their milk to the infants. The act of wet

nursing fostered both physical interaction and racial variation between the African enslaved and

the white women as well as the limitations of the wet nurses opportunities. The historical artistic

worker of the authors involved the representation of the site of exploitation for the women

enslaved with the long run context of the slave regime. Their worker involved the manipulation

of physical labor of the enslaved women, their abilities to reproduce as well as the efficiency of

the breast milk.

Work cited

Cleveland, Kimberly. "Rosana Paulino and Tiago Sant’Ana. Locating The “Sustenance” of

Slavery in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Art." Esclavages & Post-esclavages. Slaveries

& Post-Slaveries 2 (2020).

Winer, Rebecca Lynn. "The enslaved wet nurse as nanny: the transition from free to slave labor

in childcare in Barcelona after the Black Death (1348)." Slavery & Abolition 38.2

(2017): 303-319
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