Plantation Control and Calculated Reproductive Sterilizations in a Western Territory in the Mid-20th Century

Background and Purpose: Many governments have attempted to control the reproduction of its population. Most famous in the recent context is China’s One Child Policy, and its subsequent backlash, as China attempted to control population growth. Many states and nations have also had forced sterilization programs, to stop the reproductive capacity of people deemed unfit of genetically unworthy of reproduction. Less studied is the ways that companies may also be involved in these reproductive and family planning activities, and how they interact with governmental interests to control the reproduction of its workers. This study examines archival materials related to the collusion of plantation owners, doctors, and local leaders to encourage (and/or coerce) women of particular marginalized groups in a Western territory to participate in reproductive sterilizations.

Method: This study uses extensive archival materials from plantation bulletins, local medical journals and publications, social settlement archives, and state archives as evidence in regard to questions of reproductive sterilization in the 20^th Century in a Western territory. Grounded in both feminist critique, and Foucauldian discourse analysis, this study examines how doctors, company owners and manager, and local leaders worked together to try to control the reproduction of the working class, both in the capitol city, and among people in the rural labor force.

Results: Analysis demonstrates a long history of attempting to pass reproductive sterilization through a legislative process, including strong testimony and advocacy from local social service leaders, politicians, and others. However, when that attempt to legislate mandatory sterilization (primarily focused on “defectives”) failed, other form of governmentality began to exert themselves to achieve similar ends. Particularly scientists in the medical field of the time, who were very interested in both plantation management and management of the family, created research studies into sterilization procedures as a medical procedure, but also as a means of “saving” women from multiparity and unwanted pregnancies. To do this, they calculated the number of people who could be supported on a typical plantation wages that would keep all family members from malnutrition, and crated a recommendation for the postpartum sterilization of women after their fourth child. These community leaders also tied the receipt of welfare for men who had lost jobs to conversations around vasectomies. There were also multiple discussions in medical communities of whether or not patients’ consent was needed, or if a doctor’s opinion was sufficient to order these procedures. Multiple research studies suggest that the rate of postpartum sterilizations was significantly higher in urban hospitals than other areas of the US., speaking to the power that these non-state systems had in controlling the reproduction of the citizens.

Conclusions and Implications: While governments are often the target of study in terms of population control, Foucault’s ideas of governmentality, or the ways that a variety of institutions, processes, and social pressures can create a type of power that can lead to individuals’ meeting the goals of the state even in the absence of laws, such as through coerced reproductive sterilization of vulnerable community members.