Women's Labor in Empire and Diaspora.

The article discusses the role of Black West Indian women in the construction of the Panama Canal and their contributions to the U.S. imperial project. These women played a crucial role in sustaining the Black male canal workers and caring for white families through their domestic and care labor. Despite their essential contributions, they faced discrimination and disparagement from both officials and white female employers. The author highlights the resilience and agency of these women, as well as their ability to navigate between the social reproduction of imperial racial capitalism and the social reproduction of West Indian lives. The book provides a more accurate account of the Panama Canal by utilizing non-U.S. based sources and contextualizing women's migration to Panama within their preexisting traditions and practices. Overall, the book makes significant contributions to the scholarship of the Panama Canal, Caribbean diaspora, post-emancipation labor in the Caribbean, and imperial history. [Extracted from the article]