Race and the Politics of Infanticide in Post-Emancipation Virginia.

This article examines the disproportionate and severe punishment of Black women and girls accused of infanticide in post-emancipation Virginia, focusing on the 1869 case of Phillis Douglas, a 15-year-old Black domestic worker sentenced to 16 years in the state penitentiary. Drawing on court and coroner records, the article situates Douglas's conviction within broader racial, political, and economic dynamics following emancipation, highlighting how freed Black women's reproductive lives were subjected to heightened surveillance and criminalization amid Reconstruction-era struggles over citizenship and labor. It also explores how racial biases, legal practices, and national movements—such as the antiabortion campaign and white feminist activism—intersected to exacerbate Black women's vulnerability to harsh state punishment, contrasting their treatment with that of white women accused of similar crimes. Ultimately, the article underscores the complex interplay of race, gender, and power in shaping postwar legal responses to reproduction and motherhood in Virginia.