Chattel Like Cattle: Enslaved Women as Perfect Property

The ‘West’ broke away from traditional forms of enslavement and invented an entirely new and unprecedented system that was chattel slavery. It was designed specifically for Africans who were legally classified as non-human. They were defined as property with all the features of chattel. They could be bought, sold, mortgaged, bequeathed, used as currency, and were taxable. As non-humans they could be raped, prostituted, and provided socio-sexual services. African women were placed at the center of the Chattel system. It was through the black woman that the model became inter-generational with the market agreement of her fertility and maternity. Her experience was therefore significantly different from that of the African male. This lecture sets out how it was done across colonial Americas.

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Bio:

The Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles is a distinguished academic, international thought leader, United Nations committee official, and global public activist in the field of social justice and minority empowerment.

Educated at the University of Hull, Sir Hilary is a Director of SAGICOR Financial Corporation, the  largest financial company in the Caribbean region, Chairman of the Caribbean Examinations Council, former Chairman of The University of the West Indies Press, Chairman of the Caribbean  Community (CARICOM), Commission on Reparation and Social Justice, former President of Universities Caribbean, an editor of the UNESCO General History of Africa series and a Director  of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. He has also served as an advisor  to the UN World Culture Report and Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations on  Sustainable Development. He is a past Vice President of the International Task Force for the UNESCO Slave Route Project and a past consultant for the UNESCO Cities for Peace Global Programme. He sits on the Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and is also Chancellor of the United Nations University.

Sir Beckles has Honorary Doctorate Awards from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and  Technology, Hull University, Brock University, University of Glasgow, the University of  Johannesburg, North-West University, and the University of London. Sir Hilary Beckles is also the  recipient of the prestigious Sir Martin Luther King Jr Award for global advocacy, academic  scholarship and intellectual leadership in support of social justice, institutional equity, and  economic development for marginalized and oppressed ethnicities and nations.

*This event is cosponsored by New York University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies*

For accommodations, please contact the Assistant Director for the Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora at ac8829@nyu.edu.