Keywords
Womanhood
Among Black/African women, Womanhood provided a shared space of connection. In eighteenth century Black Louisiana, womanhood was more than the adult stage of life that followed childhood. Rather, it was a space defined by the ability to see, create, and perform kinship across a diverse array of conditions. Like “Girlhood,” Womahood captured the experiences and struggles of women, as well as their efforts to resist and create autonomous spaces. Different than Girlhood, however, Womahood included a different set of abilities and vulnerabilities; for example, for enslaved women in particular, womanhood included the threat of losing loved ones and family members. In the documents, we see women share in Womahood in ways that also resist colonial violence and create strength through kinship and family; in the case of Geneveva Junon and Maria Juana, two Black women negotiate the sale of property from one to the other. While we don’t know whether these women were related or the circumstances through which they knew one another in 1771, it is an example of the legal rights and the shared space of connection provided by Womanhood.
