Presenter: Dana Glasscock
Mentors: Jamie Bufalino, History; Corbett Upton, English
Oral Presentation
Majors: History and English
Within the United States, the relationship between the state and African American women’s reproductive roles has been complicated and contentious. In the brutal control of reproduction for profit within slavery the role of the state was to justify slave owners’ use of black women’s bodies without regard for the women’s choice. Contrasting this systemized reproduction for economic gain is the condemning attitude of the state toward African American women’s reproduction past reconstruction and into the 20th century through financially punitive and manipulative means including Welfare reforms, Social Services policies, and sterilization policies that disproportionally affected African American women as a result of lingering biases. In the context of the second half of the 20th century this role of the state was still economically motivated as an effort to avoid spending on mothers or children deemed less deserving. Legal and social historians including Linda Kerber and Dorothy Roberts have noted how the paternal and pejorative elements of state legislation and public efforts resemble the methods of manipulation found under slavery. Though the specifics of the state’s actions differ, examining the similarity in root justifications and their connections to legal and economic motivations of the state allows for clearer understanding of the tense relationship between the state and African American women’s reproduction. My work seeks to explore specific legal and political tactics, motivations, and implications of the role of the state in the lives and reproductive experiences of African American women, focusing on two periods of the US: slavery and the second half of the 20th century.