Neither Idle nor Worthless: Accounting for Doll's Labor and Value in the Economy of Slavery

This presentation examines the unusual case of an enslaved woman called Doll who received wages for work as a midwife to enslaved women despite assessments of her as idle and worthless, having little to no cash value. Examining wages as a means to leverage Doll’s ties to and authority within the community of enslaved people for the benefit of the plantation, this presentation accounts for and reconciles values not easily disciplined by the logic of the numerical.

Featured Speaker: Sasha Turner (Johns Hopkins University)