“My Daddy … He Was a Good Man”
Gendered Genealogies and Memories of Enslaved Fatherhood in America’s Antebellum South
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17825263 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephanie M Grant (0000-0003-2370-7140, Newcastle University, corresponding author), David Bowe (0000-0002-1487-3924, Newcastle University) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 43-43 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Genealogy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2313-5778 • E-ISSN: 2313-5778 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/genealogy4020043 |
| OpenAlex | W3014496479 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 32 |
While the last few years have witnessed an upsurge of studies into enslaved motherhood in the antebellum American South, the role of the enslaved father remains largely trapped within a paradigm of enforced absenteeism from an unstable and insecure familial unit. The origins of this lie in the racist assumptions of the infamous “Moynihan Report” of 1965, read backwards into slavery itself. Consequently, the historiographical trajectory of work on enslaved men has drawn out the performative aspects of their masculinity in almost every area of their lives except that of fatherhood. This has produced an image of individualistic masculinity, separate from the familial role that many enslaved men managed to sustain and, as a result, productive of a disjointed and gendered genealogy of slavery and its legacy. This paper assesses the extent to which this fractured genealogy actually represents the former slaves’ worldview. By examining a selection of interviews conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s (the WPA Narratives), this paper explores formers slaves’ memories of their enslaved fathers and the significance of the voluntary paternal presence in their life stories. It concludes that the role of the black father was of greater significance than so far recognised by the genealogical narratives that emerged from the slave communities of the Antebellum South
Aesthetics · Art · Genealogy · Historiography · Literature · Masculinity · Narrative · Performative utterance · Sociology · American History and Culture · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Race, History, and American Society
Climbing Jacob's ladder
Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older
The Oral History Reader
Contesting Slave Masculinity in the American South
The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S. Marriage Patterns
The slave community
The Debate on the Strength of Slave Families
To Have and to Hold
We Real Cool
Roll, Jordan, Roll
Special issue of Women’s History Review —Mothering slaves
Reflections on the History and Historians of the black woman’s role in the community of slaves
Sweet Chariot
White Privilege, Black Burden
Life in Black and White
Serial Marriage and the Origins of the Black Stepfamily
Slavery and Social Death
The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation
Long Past Slavery
Various Means of Providing for Their Own Tables’
No Band of Brothers Could Be More Loving
Fatherhood in Contemporary Black America
Work and Slave Family Life in Antebellum Northern Virginia
Fertility control, shared nurturing, and dual exploitation
Out of the Mouths of Ex-Slaves
Manliness and Civilization
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |