When slave ships sailed for new lands, male slaves remained
shackled for the entire voyage, but female slaves were unshackled
the moment the ship sailed.
When slave ships sailed for new lands, male slaves remained shackled for the entire voyage, but female slaves were unshackled the moment the ship sailed. While some of the reasons for this are obvious (to better serve the men), this also meant that they were free to roam the ship and discover where the weapons were cached, find out the ship’s schedule, and discover when the upper decks were most unmanned. So while the men were helpless, the women were busy plotting to seize control of the ship. In the major uprisings during the slave trade of the 1700’s, it was women, not men, who strategized, the ways and means of attack, and freed the men to participate.
Whatever history books may say, the ships’ logs and London’s House of Lords’ meticulous record-keeping reveal that there were often two or three times as many women on board a slave ship as men. You can bet those ladies were not sitting idly by while the men fought for freedom. But it is only by reading between the lines that we discover the real truth, the “her” of the story, rather than just the “his” of our history. What’s not said is just as important as what is said. Women throughout history have always found ways to fight right alongside men whenever their children, homes and freedom were threatened. Yet women have been too often portrayed in very passive ways, and the black women of slave revolts are not even mentioned as accomplices in the “official” historical records.
Now why is it that we have been handed down this pacified version of history? Well, the simplistic answer is that those in power write to support their own agenda, and in this case, the ones in power happened to be white males. In the economy of slavery, if women were recognized as the strong, clever, fierce and courageous people they really were, it would have been much harder to justify their slavery. Women’s roles had to be reinterpreted as passive; when the stories were retold, it was always the men who had played the active roles.
This fascinating look at history was the topic of conversation when the Gilroy branch of the American Association of University Women held their most recent luncheon at San Juan Oaks. Keynote speaker and recipient of an AAUW fellowship, Rebecca Hall, spoke on her dissertation topic, “Not Killing Me Softly: African American Women, Slave Revolts, and the Historical Construction of Racialized Gender.”
However, it was not just improving the historical record that was the subject of the day. Several young women gave reports at the luncheon regarding one of the most exciting programs sponsored by the AAUW. Called Tech Trek, it is designed to spark girls’ interest in science and math and encourage them to pursue careers in these fields. At Tech Trek, girls getting ready to enter the eighth grade attend a week-long camp. They interact with women who model a high degree of science, math or computer expertise as part of their daily lives. They do things such as learning physics via the roller coaster, touring a facility on robotics, building kaleidoscopes, making a human chain of DNA, and studying marine biology with a boat trip on the bay. The AAUW supports girls and women who will one day make new mathematical and scientific leaps.
Because the Gilroy AAUW supports historians such as Rebecca Hall, the women of Gilroy play a part in rewriting history, and in their support of the Tech Trek program, they are supporting women who will create our future history.
