Mother Wit

Origins in Slave Mother Wisdom

The term mother wit was first coined by African American folklorists to refer to the wisdom of elder, African American, U.S. women slaves. These women, who were enslaved from approximately 1619 to 1865, were recognized for playing an essential role in preserving and transmitting Afrocentric cultural norms and for educating African American communities about survival tactics, child rearing, family nurturance, and political resistance.

The wisdom of elder women is a celebrated source of knowledge in various cultures. Such wisdom was especially revered by African American slaves because it guided, informed, and inspired oppressed African American families and communities to persevere amidst the grueling physical, social, and political conditions imposed by slaveholders. Female slave elders were regarded as having important mother wit that pertained to various social contexts. For instance, grandmothers, mid-wives, female medical healers, and female teachers were recognized for their distinct wisdom. These women assumed significant leadership roles within families and communities. They also provided knowledge and services to other African Americans that were denied to them because African Americans were banned from formal institutions such as hospitals and schools until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

African American slave women—both biological mothers and nonbiological caregivers—imparted mother wit to children by passing along prophetic sayings and protective advice to help them avoid harm and/or learn how to care for themselves. These women's mother wit also addressed ways to sustain loving relationships that were threatened under slavery, as it was illegal for slaves to marry and families members were often separated and sold to different slave masters. Hence, passing along mother wit has historically been an informal mode of education, a form of anti-racist mothering, and a means of social resistance for African Americans. The sharing of mother wit further aligns with the oral history traditions of African Americans that derive from their African ancestral roots.

This folk-art depiction from the 1850s reflects the eagerness of slave mothers to pass down humor and wit to their children.

Today, mother wit is still commonly referenced by writers and scholars who profile the wisdom of African American women and elders. The mother wit term, however, is not exclusively applied to African Americans. Women of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are recognized as [Page 874]having mother wit, as are men in some instances. Moreover, the word “mother” in mother wit is not always associated with childrearing mothers, but rather with a larger spiritual entity, as with the term Mother Earth. Mother wit, nevertheless, is still typically linked to women's ways of knowing.

...