Global child-saving, transatlantic maternalism, and the pathologization of Caribbean childhood, 1930s–1940s

Abstract

In a rapid shift between the 1920s and 1940s, British imperial policy went from paying almost no attention to child-rearing among colonized populations to hailing family order among the colonized as essential to economic progress and social stability. The shift resulted from the intersection of processes occurring on three different scales: global scientific and ideological developments, transimperial gendered professionalization, and local social and political struggles. This paper illuminates those multi-scalar dynamics by examining a specific subfield of empire, the British Caribbean. As riots and general strikes in Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica, and other colonies shook the imperial order in the late 1930s, metropolitan observers discovered the “native” family as the crucial incubator of proper working-class citizens. This article uses British Caribbean newspapers and unpublished Colonial Office correspondence generated by the 1938–39 West India Royal Commission (Moyne Commission) to make visible the global and transatlantic dialogs that brought the “problem” of the Caribbean family to the forefront of policy debate. Although imperial rule would not last, the pathologization of Caribbean parenting would prove painfully persistent.

Keywords:

• Maternalism
• British empire
• British West Indies
• Caribbean childhood
• child-saving
• Moyne Commission

Acknowledgment

I am grateful to Juanita De Barros, William French, Alissa Trotz, the special issue editors, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on earlier versions of this essay.

Notes on contributor

Lara Putnam is a Professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of Radical Moves: Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and The Company They Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa Rica, 1870–1960 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002). Her current projects address transnational history in a text-searchable age; gender, family, and sexuality in circum-Caribbean migration; and the history of Caribbean childhood.

Notes

1. Barrow, Family in the Caribbean; Bush, “Colonial Research”; Chamberlain, “Small Worlds”; Chamberlain, Family Love; Smith, “Family, Social Change, and Social Policy”; French, “Colonial Policy Towards Women,”Vassell, “Colonial Gender Policy in Jamaica.”

2. For example, Simey, Welfare and Planning.

3. De Barros, “Improving the Standard”; De Barros, “A Laudable Experiment.”

4. Altink, Destined for a Life of Service; Moore and Johnson, Neither Led Nor Driven.

5. “A Reply to Audacity,” (Limón) Searchlight, August 23, 1930, 3.

6. See James, Holding Aloft the Banner; Putnam, Radical Moves; Putnam, “Citizenship from the Margins.”

7. Lawrence and Starkey, Child Welfare; Davin, “Imperialism and Motherhood,” 89. On Caribbean echoes, see Altink, Destined for a Life of Service, Ch. 3; De Barros, “Improving the Standard of Motherhood”; De Barros, “A Laudable Experiment.”

8. Davin, “Imperialism and Motherhood,” 90.

9. Paisley, “Childhood and Race”; Putnam, “Nothing Matters But Color.”

10. “Salary of Our Elementary School Teachers,” Barbados Weekly Herald, March 1, 1919, p. 4.

11. “Salary of Our Elementary School Teachers,” Barbados Weekly Herald, March 1, 1919, p. 4.

12. Putnam, “To Study the Fragments/Whole.”

13. Putnam, Radical Moves; Putnam, Company They Kept, Ch. 5.

14. Hector Connor, “One Wish to Make,” in Isthmian Echoes, 28. First published Panama American, Christmas 1927.

15. S. H. Whyte, “First Place,” in Isthmian Echoes, 19. First published Panama American Oct. 30, 1927.

16. “Where are your children,” (Limón) Searchlight, November 28, 1931, 1.

17. “New Year Celebration,” (Limon) Searchlight, January 11, 1930, 1.

18. “The Child Welfare Problem,” Panama Tribune, November 11, 1928, 14.

19. Macpherson, “Colonial Matriarchs.”

20. Daily Chronicle, August 2, 1931, 3, 7. Text available at http://guygenbiosociety.blogspot.com/2006/07/tenth-annual-assembly-of-negro.html; De Barros, Reproducing the Caribbean; Reddock, Women Labour & Politics, Ch. 6.

21. Altink, Destined for a Life of Service, Ch. 5; Mitchell, Righteous Propagation.

22. “A Word to My People,” Panama Tribune, January 6, 1929, 16.

23. Sidney Young, “Educating Our Women,” in Isthmian Echoes, 277–278.

24. Michel and Koven, Mothers of a New World; Digby and Stewart, Gender, Health and Welfare; Altink, Destined for a Life of Service.

25. “The Place of Woman,” (Limón) Searchlight, November 21, 1931, 4.

26. Reddock, Women, Labour and Politics, Ch. 6.

27. Linda Smart Chubb, “Will Trinidad Spurn the Call?” in Isthmian Echoes, 140. First published Panama American October 13, 1927.

28. Linda Smart Chubb, “Will Trinidad Spurn the Call?” in Isthmian Echoes, 140. First published Panama American October 13, 1927.

29. Putnam, Radical Moves, Ch. 6.

30. National Archives of the UK, Colonial Office [henceforth, CO] 318/433/1, no. 8, rpt. in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, 61. See Johnson, “Political Uses of Commissions”; Johnson, “West Indies”; Fraser, “Twilight of Colonial Rule.”

31. Burton, Burdens of History; Burton, “Contesting the Zenana,” Turshen, “Reproducing Labour.”

32. Pedersen, “Maternalist Moment,” 196 et passim; Metzger, “International Human Rights”; Smith, “International Conference on African Children.”

33. CO 323/1090/1 (Colonial Development Public Health Committee: recommendations to Colonial Development Advisory Committee: 1930), Minutes; CO 323/1090/1 (Colonial Development Public Health Committee: recommendations to Colonial Development Advisory Committee: 1930), “Report of the Colonial Development Public Health Committee, July 1930.”

34. CO 323/1090/1 (Colonial Development Public Health Committee: recommendations to Colonial Development Advisory Committee: 1930), Minutes; CO 323/1090/1 (Colonial Development Public Health Committee: recommendations to Colonial Development Advisory Committee: 1930), “Report of the Colonial Development Public Health Committee, July 1930.”

35. CO 859/77/11 (Maternity and Child Welfare, Women's Services, in the Colonies, and training of Personnel, for Report by Dr. Mary Blacklock: 1942). Blacklock published the report on her own in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine's journal in 1936. Blacklock, “Certain Aspects of the Welfare of Women and Children.” See also Blacklock, “Co-operation in Health Education”; Smith, “International Conference on African Children.”

36. Pedersen, “Maternalist Moment,” 198; see also Allman, “Making Mothers.”

37. CO 318/433/1 (Proposed General Commission of Enquiry: 1938); Johnson, “Political Uses of Commissions,” 270–3.

38. Crowdy, “Humanitarian Activities,” 153–69; Pedersen, “Maternalist Moment,” 188.

39. Lathrop, “International Cooperation,” 422. See also United States, Children's Bureau, Thirteenth Annual Report, 35–38.

40. CO 318/433/1 (Proposed General Commission of Enquiry: 1938).

41. CO 318/433/1 (Proposed General Commission of Enquiry: 1938).

42. CO 318/434/7 (Miscellaneous Observations on West Indian Conditions: 1938); CO 950/56 (Mr. W Arthur Lewis, B Cam., Memorandum of Evidence: 1938); CO 318/446/10 (Comptroller's Staff: Social Welfare: 1940); CO 950/44 (Mr. Marcus Garvey (Universal Negro Improvement Association), Memorandum of Evidence: 1938).

43. CO 318/433/2 (Royal Commission: Miscellaneous, 1938–1939).

44. CO 318/433/2 (Royal Commission: Miscellaneous, 1938–1939).

45. CO 318/433/2 (Royal Commission: Miscellaneous, 1938–1939).

46. CO 950/24 (Harold Stannard Memorandum of Evidence: 1938), 39. See also Stannard, “The West Indies,” 202–14.

47. See also, among many, CO 950/8 (Memorandum of Evidence, Peggy Cox: 1938); CO 950/9 (Correspondence regarding visit of Major Orde Brown to West Indies: 1938); CO 950/11 (Memorandum of Evidence, Mrs. Hilda MacDonald: 1938); CO 318/434/7 (Miscellaneous Observations on West Indian Conditions: 1938).

48. Jamaica Save the Children Fund, JSCF 50th anniversary 1938–1988 (Kingston, 1988) [Jamaican National Library, Pamphlets].

49. Donnell, “Una Marson”; Jarrett-Macauley, Life of Una Marson.

50. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

51. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

52. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

53. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

54. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

55. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

56. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). Letter from Una Marson, Sept 13, 1938.

57. CO 950/31 (Miss Amy Bailey, Memorandum of Evidence: 1938).

58. CO 950/31 (Miss Amy Bailey, Memorandum of Evidence: 1938).

59. CO 950/31 (Miss Amy Bailey, Memorandum of Evidence: 1938)., Transcript of testimony before the commission on September 20, 1938.

60. CO 950/31 (Miss Amy Bailey, Memorandum of Evidence: 1938)., Transcript of testimony before the commission on September 20, 1938.

61. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938), Transcript of testimony before the commission on September 30, 1938, 344.

62. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938), Transcript of testimony before the commission on September 30, 1938, 347.

63. CO 950/36 (Miss Una Marson: Memorandum of Evidence: 1938), Transcript of testimony before the commission on September 30, 1938, 350.

64. Gregg, “Writings of Amy Bailey,” 23.

65. CO 950/42 (Social Services Etc; Memorandum by Dame Rachel Crowdy and Dr. Blacklock: 1938), Letter from Mary Blacklock, September 17, 1938.

66. CO 950/42 (Social Services Etc; Memorandum by Dame Rachel Crowdy and Dr. Blacklock: 1938), Letter from Mary Blacklock, September 17, 1938., Letter from Rachel Crowdy.

67. CO 950/42 (Social Services Etc; Memorandum by Dame Rachel Crowdy and Dr. Blacklock: 1938), Letter from Mary Blacklock, September 17, 1938., Letter from Rachel Crowdy.

68. Pedersen, “Maternalist Moment.”

69. CO 950/793 (Memorandum of Evidence: Coterie of Social Workers on Matters pertaining to the Welfare of Women and Children in the Colony (Trinidad): 1938). Excluded from the white-led charitable ladies' event for Blacklock and Crowdy in Jamaica, black women welfare workers reached out separately, spurring public comment. See Altink, Destined for a Life of Service, 185–6.

70. CO 950/12 (Memorandum of Evidence: Mr P E Ely: 1938).

71. CO 950/16 (Sir Murchison Fletcher, Memorandum of Evidence: 1938).

72. CO 950/18 (Miss Briant (Carnegie training Center) Memorandum of Evidence: 1938). To her credit, Miss Briant hinted at a third option: “I think it is partly the slave mentality, but we have not encouraged them to do otherwise.”

73. Bourbonnais, “Dangerously Large”; Bourbonnais, “Class, Colour and Contraception.”

74. CO 950/279 (Population: Birth Control: 1938).

75. CO 950/86 (Joint Memorandum of Evidence by Mr. N W Manley, Dr. W E McCullough, Mr. N N Nethersole, Mr. Graham Hawkins and Miss May Farquharson: 1938).

76. CO 950/86 (Joint Memorandum of Evidence by Mr. N W Manley, Dr. W E McCullough, Mr. N N Nethersole, Mr. Graham Hawkins and Miss May Farquharson: 1938), 3. For context on each of these actors, see Bourbonnais, “Out of the Boudoir.”

77. Makin, Caribbean Nights, 88–93.

78. CO 950/86 (Joint Memorandum of Evidence by Mr. N W Manley, Dr. W E McCullough, Mr. N N Nethersole, Mr. Graham Hawkins and Miss May Farquharson: 1938).

79. Johnson, “Political Uses of Commissions”; Johnson, “West Indies.”

80. West India Royal Commission Report, 221.

81. West India Royal Commission Report, 217–40.

82. West India Royal Commission Report, 227.

83. West India Royal Commission Report, 227.

84. CO 1042/163 (Education: Conference of British Missionary Societies. Comments on Recommendations of W.I. Royal Commission: 1940–1942), Letter from Conference of Missionary Societies of Great Britain and Ireland to Lord Lloyd, Secretary of State for the Colonies, September 2, 1940.

85. Platt, “Economic and Social Problems,” 673.

86. CO 318/444/6 (Royal Commission Report and Recommendations; Social Structure and Conditions: 1940), Initial correspondence.

87. See Smith, “Family, Social Change, and Social Policy”; French, “Colonial Policy Towards Women,” 199–201; Reddock, Women Labour & Politics, Ch. 8; Barrow, Family in the Caribbean; Chamberlain, “Small Worlds”; Putnam, “Caribbean Kinship”; Bush, “Colonial Research.”

88. Scott, Contempt and Pity.

89. See, importantly, Thomas, Modern Blackness; Trotz, “Behind the Banner of Culture”; Thomas, “Violence of Diaspora.”