Jambalaya 213made signifi cant contributions to abortions and other ways
for a pregnant woman to conceal or terminate her preg-
nancy and end the life of her born child. Furthermore, hus-
bands and wives were known to have participated in killing
their children and then themselves.
Regardless, not all mothers committed infanticide or
intentionally terminated their pregnancy or the life of their
young child. In fact, accounts of infanticide were relatively
low. Recent scholarship and technology, for example, has
revealed that many infants may have succumbed to sudden
infant death syndrome (SIDS)—a syndrome among infants
that causes them to mysteriously die in their sleep.
Infanticide was practiced among enslaved women for
a number of reasons; regardless of the reason, however, en-
slaved women engaged in such conspiracies with the child’s
interests in mind. Given that these women were living in the
unrelenting institution of slavery, they knew the heartbreak
and abuse that their children would encounter if raised in
such an institution.
See also: Garner, Margaret; Slave ResistanceAshley C. BowdenBibliography
Hine, Darlene Clark. Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Con-
struction of American History. New York: Carlson Publish-
ing, 1994.
Hine, Darlene Clark, and Kathleen Th ompson. A Shining Th read
of Hope: Th e History of Black Women in America. New York:
Broadway Books, 1998.
White, Deborah Gray. Ar’n’t I A Woman? Female Slaves in the
Plantation South. New York: Norton, 1985.Jambalaya
Jambalaya is a rice-based dish that emerged during the
18th century in modern-day Louisiana. Th e dish nor-
mally consists of chicken, ham, hot sausage, shrimp, green
peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, celery, and numerous
spices, although there are many variations. Th e base of
the dish is always rice, and the rice is cooked with the in-
gredients, not added to them as in many other rice-based
dishes. Th ere are two major variations of the dish, Cre-
ole jambalaya or red jambalaya and Cajun jambalaya or
brown jambalaya. Th e diff erentiation in color comes from
the variant methods used in cooking the dish.women utilized their power to prevent separation. A mother
displayed and reclaimed ownership over her child by exhib-
iting her ability to bring it into and out of the world through
infanticide. Th e most famous example of this behavior was
displayed by Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave who killed
her daughter rather than have her returned to bondage. In
cases where the master fathered a child with a slave woman,
she would kill the child so that the child would avoid being
mistreated by the jealous mistress.
Moreover, infanticide was practiced to avoid other
forms of sexual exploitation; specifi cally, infanticide was
conducted as a means to control reproduction on planta-
tions. Many masters promoted and encouraged pregnan-
cies among their enslaved women to increase their holdings
of slaves. Reproduction among slaves meant that slaves’ lev-
els of productivity would increase, and consequently, the
plantation’s monetary returns, eff ectiveness, and effi ciency
would too increase, without the master having to invest in
purchasing additional slaves. Hence, enslaved women were
viewed as economic profi ts for their masters because of
their ability to reproduce more slaves.
From the perspective of white masters, the death of a
child a result of carelessness on the mother’s behalf. In one
instance, a master attributed the death of an infant to reck-
lessness on the part of his or her mother. Another master
claimed that during the winter months, enslaved women
had the tendency to smother or roll over onto their child in
the eff ort to keep the child warm; and in other cases, white
men attributed the death of a child to the idea that enslaved
women neglected maternal feelings. Some masters, how-
ever, noticed that levels of reproduction were relatively low
among their enslaved women, and they attributed this to in-
tentional forms of abortion. In any case, regardless of how
people perceived enslaved women and their relationships
with their children, enslaved women loved their children.
Th is love was depicted in a mother’s willingness to lose her
child rather than have the child under the constant gaze of
the master and raised in the institution of slavery. A slave
woman was known to have said that she would rather turn
her child over to the hands of God than to her white master.
Infanticide was masked in various ways, and multiple
persons participated in such acts. Infanticide was covered
by a legitimate or fabricated illness that a child was said to
have had; it was also disguised by poisoning, smothering, or
strangulation. Moreover, women, men, and midwives par-
ticipated in covering up infanticide. Midwives, for example,