Black Children's Affective Labor in Slavery and Freedom

Abstract Taking Premilla Nadasen's article as a jumping off point, this essay pushes social reproduction theory (SRT) to think about labor performed by children. Children often engage in the labor of social reproduction: cooking, cleaning, nurturing families and animals, and watching other children. Focusing on enslaved Black children sheds light on some of the most marginalized and invisible labor, while also considering a group of people (children) who also need to be cared for. This essay argues for thinking about the subjective experience of laboring for these children and how they help illuminate the intertwined history of racial capitalism and social reproduction. Labor relations are also social relations, and scholars of social reproduction should pay attention to a wide range of human relations. The boundary struggles that laborers engage in are not only class struggle, but also wider struggles over the meanings of humanity and life. In this essay the author focuses on relations between Black children and their enslavers, Black sociality and kinship relations, and intersubjective experiences of care, revealing boundary struggles over time.