The Wet Nurse [African American Slaves of the South]

About two weeks ago, I was watching the series 'Reign' about the Queen of Scotland.  Episode 10 named 'Sacrifice', mentioned a newborn babe who's mother had died in labor and Mary, Queen of Scots, sent her to stay with a wet nurse.  I had an idea what a wet nurse was but I had remembered another movie about a wealthy woman in South Africa's slave woman had to feed her White master's child first before her own.  I figured this would also be the case where many women in the South having slaves did not breastfeed their own children as well.
Considering the large amount of racism in that region and the time period, I could not fathom why a White mother would deem it appropriate to have a Negro mother breast feed her child with her own, but I was incorrect.  In some areas, many slaves designated as wet nurses could feed their own child on one breast and the other devoted to the White child.  This seemingly idealized the equivalent as having a drinking fountain that was only allowed for 'Whites Only'.  [Note the title of the photo to the left entitled 'Southern Hospitality' as to imply that the slave of the time dutifully made her self available to nourish the South's children.]

About a year ago, I purchased the book, 'Bullwhip Days - The Slaves remember' by James Mellon. These narratives are unique as they are written as the slaves actually spoke.  Surprisingly, I have managed to understand the slang quite well and immediately I'm saddened as to how the lifetime of a slave can be summed up in just pages.  The slave's life was devoted to his/her Master and in the case

of a wet nurse, and in some instances considered an honor to provide the service.  

The following is a narrative from Ellen Betts explaining her life as a wet nurse in St. Mary's Parish, LA [the photo to the right does not depict Ellen Betts].  "And I tell you dat Marse William was de greates' man what ever walk dis earth....Mis' Sidney was my marster's fust wife and he had six boys by her.  Den he marry de widder Cornelia and she give him four boys. With ten chillun springin' up quick lak dat  and all de cullud chillun comin' along fast as pig litters, I don't do nothin' all my days but nuss, nuss, nuss...I nuss so many chillun it done went and stunted my growth."

In the early 1800's, Robert Mallard of Georgia wrote 'Plantation Life Before Emancipation', explaining briefly the relationship between he and his wet nurse/foster mother as she ..."always held a peculiar place in my regards. A black nurse taught me, it is probable, my first steps and first words, and was as proud of both performances as the happy mother herself."  In contrast however, the same research document examines the lost lives of Negro children due to neglect and the affects of how slave wet nurses reacted by either detaching themselves or forming a bond towards the white children they cared for.  Imagine the confusion of your body in its most maternal nature and to not be allowed to feed the child intended as its mother.  The fact lies that slaves bearing children were not to build healthy families but to add stock to the plantation.  Forming maternal relationships with slave children was frowned upon and in the South, the only labor required of a White woman with slaves was to bear the child.  All other maternal work duties fell upon the wet nurse, foster mother or house servants.

Under the simple title of 'Negro Nurse', you will see the routine accounts of a slave in North Carolina's 'promotions' through the ranks of her work duties.  "I frequently work from fourteen to sixteen hours a day. I am compelled to by my contract, which is oral only, to sleep in the house. I am allowed to go home to my own children, the oldest of whom is a girl of 18 years, only once in two weeks, every other Sunday afternoon--even then I'm not permitted to stay all night. I not only have to nurse a little white child, now eleven months old, but I have to act as playmate, or "handy-andy," not to say governess, to three other children in the house, the oldest of whom is only nine years of age."

This brief study gives me a realization that centuries of African American peoples were subjected to an unbelievable and horrific torture of the mind.  To be told on one hand that you are property and stock but then on the other hand, positioned in holding together an institution of love and kindness outside and away from your own offspring.  I can't imagine the grief and sorrow of the times and although these scenes are many decades past, people of color need to educate themselves as to their part in history and how instrumental it has been even if an atrocity.  The service and commitment of the African American should be one that is well remembered and regarded but never to returned to.

Citations:
Bullwhip Days - The Slaves Remember, by James Mellon Pg 380-381
http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2901
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/negnurse/negnurse.html