Grandmothers in Antebellum Slave Families and Communities

• In Event: Unsettling the Linear Logic of Age: Narrating Complexity in Later Life

Abstract

Close to a million slaves were moved from the Upper-South to the Deep South during the antebellum era of national expansion (1820-60). Old people were regularly left behind. This paper examines the impact of the presence or absence of grandmothers on slave families and communities as a consequence of these age-selective dislocations. It confirms “the grandmother hypothesis” of evolutionary biologists and anthropologists, showing that contrary to the view of old women as needing more help than they were able to provide, for a significant portion of their post-reproductive years, these women kept slave families and communities alive.

Presenter

• Stephanie J Shaw, Ohio State University