212 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present221–41. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
2004.
Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: Th e “Invisible Institution” in
the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press,
1978.Infanticide
Infanticide is the practice of killing one’s own child, a form
of resistance employed by enslaved women to prevent their
children from being enslaved. Having experienced multiple
forms of oppression in the institution of slavery, because of
their race and sex, enslaved women engaged in many forms
of resistance to combat the harsh realities of slavery. Specifi -
cally, there are several methods of resistance that enslaved
women utilized to combat sexual abuse and to prevent
unwanted pregnancies that oft en resulted from unwanted
sexual interactions with their masters. Th ese methods in-
cluded abstinence, abortions, various means of birth con-
trol, and infanticide.
Much contention has surfaced around infanticide and
the reason a mother would kill her child. However, infanti-
cide was an intentional act performed by enslaved women for
many reasons. More specifi cally, a woman performed infan-
ticide to prevent her child from experiencing the harsh reali-
ties of slavery—physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
In the case of slavery in the United States, a slave did not
own his or her body. Rather, enslaved women and men were
considered to be the property of their master. In the case of
a child born to a slave woman, the child inherited the sta-
tus of his or her mother; therefore, the child too was a slave
and belonged to the master, not the mother. Hence, given
that the master owned the child, he had the liberty to sell the
child from the mother or vice versa; he also had the freedom
to treat the child in any manner that he deemed appropri-
ate. However, in any case, the status of a child as the master’s
property was not readily accepted by enslaved women. Own-
ership of a child resulted in tensions and a constant power
struggle between the enslaved women and their masters.
Infanticide was used as a mechanism for enslaved
women to negotiate their power and to maintain a cer-
tain amount of autonomy over the trajectory and realities
of their own lives and the lives of their children. Th e con-
stant threat of potentially having a child sold from her or
vice versa fueled infanticide; therefore, to avoid separation,Hurston, Zora Neale. Mules and Men. 1935. Reprint, New York:
HarperPerennial, 1990.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti
and Jamaica. 1938. Reprint, New York: HarperPerennial,
1990.
Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. San Diego, CA:
Harvest, 1984.
Hush Harbors
Oft en referred to as invisible institutions or underground
religions, hush harbors acted as critical locations where en-
slaved individuals would come together in secret to practice
Christianity, sing spirituals, and worship with one another.
Hush harbors took place not only in slave quarters, but also
in wooded areas, swamps, ravines, and other remote places
thought to be outside of a master’s gaze or the hearing range
of nearby slave owners. Believers were called to participate
through specifi c signals and passwords—encoded messages
reminiscent of the layered meanings that could be found
in some of the songs of freedom that they sung—with iron
pots, kettles, and wet rags sometimes used to muffl e their
voices and protect their secrecy. Th ese clandestine spaces
allowed for and encouraged the development of religious
spirituals and the growth of black preachers long before
many African Americans were able to widely practice reli-
gion freely in the United States.
Taking part in communal forms of worship was pro-
hibited for most antebellum American slaves, and doing so
meant possibly being whipped, beaten, sold, or subjected to
another form of harsh punishment, including death. None-
theless, many risked these potential consequences so that
they could gather in a place that would off er them hope,
healing, and a sense of spiritual and personal connection
within an institution that attempted to deny them all that
and more. To many of those enslaved, hush harbors served
as havens of community and as necessary, if not subversive,
spaces of resistance and refuge.
See also: Slave Culture; Slave Religion
Amanda J. DavisBibliography
Nunley, Vorris, L. “From the Harbor to Da Academic Hood:
Hush Harbors and an African American Rhetorical Tradi-
tion.” In African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Per-
spectives, ed. Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson,