Date/Time: Wednesday 30th January 2019, 4:00-5:00pm

Venue: Armstrong 1.04

Sidney Mintz famously described the Caribbean plantation system as one of ‘factories in the fields’, building on CLR James’s observations about the early industrial quality of Atlantic slavery. This paper will argue that one aspect of this ‘precocious modernity’ was the institutional allocation of temporary, daily, childcare work to women who were usually not the kin of the children for whom they cared. The intensity of the work regime of Caribbean plantations created two new labour roles: the ‘nurse’ who cared for very young children and the ‘driveress’ who managed the work of older children in ‘little gangs’. Using evidence from plantation manuals, estate records and account books, slave court records, and government correspondence, the paper will demonstrate the extent and significance of these forms of labour, and their integration into the broader Atlantic economy.