In this groundbreaking study, Turner builds upon the current historiography about enslaved women by using the body as the basis for her theoretical framework. She not only explores the changing nature of how abolitionists, planters, and the enslaved perceived and represented women’s bodies, and how those perceptions and representations extended and legitimized colonial rule, but also how those ideas created tension and conflict between abolitionists and planters during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Although scholars have traditionally argued that planters imposed ameliorative reforms only when abolitionists succeeded in ending the trans-Atlantic trade, Turner shows that planter efforts at fostering higher birth rates on their estates began much earlier.
Turner makes clear from the start that his book is more than just a history of the changing nature of reproductive practices imposed by the state. Contested Bodies is a deeply intellectual history, but Turner’s arguments have roots that...