Birthing Abolition: Reproduction and the Gradual End of Slavery in Brazil

Project Information

BIRTHBRAZIL

Grant agreement ID: 747374

DOI

10.3030/747374

Project terminated on 31 August 2018

EC signature date 6 March 2017

Start date 1 September 2017

End date 31 August 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIRTHBRAZIL (Birthing Abolition: Reproduction and the Gradual End of Slavery in Brazil)

Reporting period: 2017-09-01 to 2019-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Recent debates about gender equality have begun to include reproductive health as a fundamental aspect of women’s rights. But present-day emphasis on gender and health is rooted in an extensive history of state and elite preoccupation with women’s bodies. The institution of slavery across the Americas was one instance in which certain women’s reproductive capabilities attracted the attention of the economic and ruling elite. For Brazil, historical demographers have long discussed the reproduction of the enslaved population in quantitative terms. More recently, historians have begun to situate women’s legal agency as central to the abolition of slavery. But scholarship has not analyzed the important role enslaved women’s reproductive health played in the rise and fall of slavery in Brazil—and across the Western world. BIRTHBRAZIL aims to address this gap in scholarship by analyzing how enslaved women’s reproduction shaped gradual abolition in Brazil (1850-1888). The project contends that the struggle to end slavery was intimately entangled not only with elite understandings of slave reproduction but also with enslaved women’s own agency. Enslaved women’s reproductive lives, the birth of their children, and their real and imagined understanding of motherhood were present in a wide variety of medical, political, and legal debates about the cessation of Brazilian slavery. Understanding demographic trends in conjunction with enslaved women’s reproductive agency is the only way to fully comprehend gradual abolition. BIRTHBRAZIL contributes to bioethical questions in medical history, gender studies, and critical race theory. Recent public health developments such as Zika have shed light on the continued intersection of race and gender in determining health inequalities. This research paves the way for understanding how historical state preoccupations with women’s reproduction underpin modern Brazilian healthcare. BIRTHBRAZIL's overall objectives are two peer-reviewed articles, a book monograph, "Birthing Abolition: Reproduction and the Gradual End of Slavery in Brazil" (envisaged press, Cambridge UP); an international conference on reproductive control aimed at researchers across the ERA, US, and Brazil; and the teaching of an original upper-level module on gender and abolition in HCA.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1: Professionalization and Career Development
D.1.1 – Creation and implementation of Career Development Plan on 22/09/2017

D.1.2 D.1.3 – Active participation in professional development activities
- Completed 7 writing workshops (13/10/18; 23/10/18; 03/11/18; 06/11/18; 10/11/18; 24/11/18; 08/12/18)

D.1.4 – Apply to fund international conference
- Budgeted funding from the Marie Curie (01/2019)
- Applied for and received funding from the Royal Historical Society (05/2019)

Work Package 2: Public Engagement and Outreach Activities
D.2.1 – Media/website training and creation of website
- Worked with IT, created website for project and conference: https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/birthing-abolition
- Created personal website: http://cassiaroth.com/current-research/

D.2.2 – Regular contribution to public history blogs (6)
- Blog post 1, Nursing Clio, November 9, 2017, “On Poverty, Morality, and Mothering” –
- Blog post 2, Nursing Clio, December 20, 2017, “Black Nurse, White Milk: Wet Nursing and Slavery in Brazil”
- Blog Post 3, Nursing Clio, January 9, 2018, “A Midwife for Every Woman: Maternal Healthcare in Malawi”
- Blog post 4, Editor, history of gender, race, and medicine in Latin America series, February 15, 2018 Nursing Clio
- Blog post 5, Nursing Clio, March 19, 2018, “#MarielleFrancoPresente”
- Blog post 6, Nursing Clio, May 22, 2018, “Joan Scott, Liberalism, and Abortion Rights”

D.2.3 – Public lectures (3)
- Spoke at UK Parliament (London) on women’s suffrage in Latin America, 09/02/2018

D.2.4 – Presentation with colleagues at Edinburgh
- Discussion of Jake Blanc’s paper, Centre for Global and Contemporary History 14/11/17
- Discussion of Gayle Davis infertility book, Gender & Sexuality; Science, Medicine, & Technology 29/11/17
- Research presentation, Gender & Sexuality Group, 14/02/2018

WP3 – Demographic History of Slavery
D.3.4 – Academic Presentation
- European Social Science History Conference, 4-7 April, Belfast, Ireland. Paper titled "Malthus in the Tropics: Sterilization in Early 20th-Century Brazil"
- Brazilian Studies Association Conference, 25-28 July 2018, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Paper titled “History of Childbirth in 19th-Century Brazil”

WP4 – Enslaved Women’s Reproductive Practices
D.4.1 – Draft of Ch. 3, “Birthing Slavery: Maternal-Infant Health in the 19th century”
- Read and analyzed 50 years of medical journals and dissertations related to enslaved women’s reproductive health

D.4.2 – Academic Presentation
- “Slave Subjectivities in the Atlantic World,” 2-4 June 2018, Lisbon, Portugal. Paper, “Spectres of the Womb: Enslaved Reproduction, Elite Responses, and Abolition in Brazil”

D.4.3 – Archival Research
- Conducted archival research in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (01/2018; 07/2018)
- Conducted archival research in Lisbon, Portugal (04/2018)

D.4.4 Submission of First Article
- Submitted 06/2018; published 11/2018 – “Black Nurse, White Milk: Breastfeeding, Slavery, and Abolition in Nineteenth-Century Brazil” (Journal of Human Lactation)

WP5 – Elite Views on Enslaved Reproduction
D.5.5 – International Conference – Intimate Politics: Fertility Control in a Global Historical Perspective, 23-34 May 2018
- 25 scholars from the US, Canada, UK, ERA, China,South Africa, and Turkey

WP6 – Gendering the Abolition of Slavery
D.6.1 – Module, “Engendering Abolition Across the Americas”
- Team taught master’s module Diana “Gender and the History of the Americas,” 01/2018 – 04/2018

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

During the project, I made significant progress on the book-length manuscript (Birthing Abolition: Reproduction and the Gradual End of Slavery in Brazil), evidenced through my publications, archival research, and academic presentations disseminating my new research. With Diana Paton, I organized an international conference on the subject of reproductive rights and gender rights, a pressing question in today's global political climate. We created a permanent network for international scholars to discuss and share their innovative research on the subject.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow discussing women's suffrage at UK Parliament, 09/02/2018