“Look’d Like Milk”: Colonialism and Infant Feeding in the English Atlantic World

Abstract

While wet nursing interactions between enslaved women of African descent and colonial women have received extensive scholarly attention, much remains to be done in understanding colonial and Native women’s interactions around breastfeeding and infant feeding. This article close-reads two captivity narratives in which baby food features prominently: God’s Protecting Providence, Jonathan Dickinson’s 1699 narrative of being shipwrecked among Ais, Jeaga, Jobé, Santaluces, and Surruque Indians in coastal Florida in 1696; and God’s Mercy Surmounting Man’s Cruelty, Elizabeth Hanson’s 1728 narrative of being captured by Wabanaki people during Dummer’s War in 1724. Captivity rendered the colonists dependent upon intimate Native care for the survival of their children. When Dickinson and Hanson crafted their narratives of their captivities, however, they sought to reinscribe colonial supremacy after experiences that called it into question. The complexities of colonial-Native interactions around infant feeding in these sources demonstrate the need for further scholarship on reproduction and settler colonialism.

Breastfeeding: The Basics, the History, and Barriers in the Modern Day

“…The observation was recorded in the captivity narrative of Elizabeth Hanson after being captured by the tribe during the Dummer's War of 1724. 30 This method did not become widely used among colonizers, who instead often used unaltered cow's milk as a breastmilk substitute for individuals who were unable or unwilling to breastfeed. 31 In the 19th century, there was growing concern about the health outcomes for infants fed with cow's milk, which lead to interest in the development of an artificial substitute.…”

“…The formula used was produced from nuts and cornmeal. The observation was recorded in the captivity narrative of Elizabeth Hanson after being captured by the tribe during the Dummer's War of 1724 30 . This method did not become widely used among colonizers, who instead often used unaltered cow's milk as a breastmilk substitute for individuals who were unable or unwilling to breastfeed 31 .…”