Gender History, Global History, and Atlantic Slavery

On Racial Capitalism and Social Reproduction

Abstract

Bringing into connection the scholarship on social reproduction and racial capitalism shows that the global history of Atlantic slavery is a gendered story; and the gendered history of Atlantic slavery is a global story. Attending in particular to reproductive labor in all its forms, and to the centrality of gender relations to the transmission of property and status, enables greater understanding of Atlantic slavery as a critically important aspect of modern global history. Indeed, without attention to gender and specifically to reproductive work, the global history of Atlantic slavery will inevitably be partial and incomplete. The reproductive work of women in Africa, as well as in the Americas, should be understood as an integral part of the development of Atlantic slavery, and thus of racial capitalism.