In 1841, the Hillsborough, North Carolina slaveholder Laura Norwood approached the ‘most undesirable event’ of childbirth. That spring, she was one of two expectant mothers in the household she shared with her husband Joseph. Eliza, a woman enslaved by the Norwoods, would also be confined ‘just about the time’ Laura thought she ‘shall need her most’. These dilemmas of childbearing and labour would continue: in later years, another enslaved domestic labourer, Adeline, fell pregnant; then, Dinah. By 1844, Laura was faced with the ‘appalling prospect’ that the four enslaved women working in the household would have a total of six children under three years old. She thought ‘it almost impossible to make them earn their victuals and clothes’. Laura found these enslaved women’s pregnancies, childbirth, and childcare disruptive to her household routines: they worked for Laura and her family variously as nurses, housemaids, milkmaids, cooks and washerwomen. Both Laura’s childbearing and that of the women she enslaved demanded the reorganization of domestic labour in the household, including, at times, the introduction of new labourers.

中文翻译：

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美国南部战前奴隶制家庭中的母亲和劳动

1841年，北卡罗来纳州希尔斯伯勒市的奴隶主劳拉·诺伍德（Laura Norwood）提出了“最不希望发生的分娩事件”。那年春天，她是她与丈夫约瑟夫（Joseph）共享的家庭中的两个准妈妈之一。诺伍德夫妇奴役的妇女伊丽莎（Eliza）也将“只在某个时间”被劳拉（Laura）认为自己“最需要她”。生育和劳动的两难困境将继续下去：在后来的几年中，另一位被奴役的家庭工人阿德琳怀孕了。然后，黛娜 到1844年，劳拉面临着一个“令人震惊的前景”，即在家庭中工作的四名被奴役的妇女总共将有六个三岁以下的孩子。她认为“要让他们挣钱和买衣服几乎是不可能的”。劳拉发现这些被奴役的妇女的怀孕，分娩和育儿对她的家庭生活造成了干扰：他们为劳拉（Laura）和她的家人工作，担任护士，女仆，挤奶女仆，厨师和洗衣女工。劳拉的分娩和她所奴役的妇女都要求改组家庭佣工，包括有时引入新的劳工。