Infanticide, Infant Mortality, and the Racialized Construction of Fordist Motherhood: Household Surveillance, Suspicious Death Investigations, and "Neglectful" Mothers in Progressive Era Chicago.

This article examines how rising concerns about infant mortality influenced the interpretation and policing of infanticide in Chicago from 1872 to 1911, focusing on 1,270 suspicious infant death investigations conducted by the Cook County Coroner. It highlights two major shifts in inquest language: the professionalization of medical terminology and a transition from viewing maternal neglect as passive ignorance to a punitive concept of "willful neglect," which blamed mothers for infant deaths. The article situates these changes within the broader context of Fordist capitalism and biopolitics, emphasizing how state surveillance, expanding medical authority, and reform campaigns targeted working-class white mothers while largely excluding Black mothers and infants. Efforts to support Black motherhood were primarily led by African American women reformers operating with limited resources, reflecting the racialized nature of Progressive Era infant welfare initiatives.