The enslaved wet nurse as nanny: the transition from free to slave labor in childcare in Barcelona after the Black Death (1348)

ABSTRACT

After the Black Death (1348–1400), Barcelona elites moved from hiring free wet nurses to purchasing enslaved women. This was not simply because the supply of slaves increased making enslaved wet nurses affordable. The gold standard before the plague was a married wet nurse of good reputation who lived in. Such women had families; as the labor market turned in their favor, they negotiated terms that benefited them, for example, bringing their child with them. Employers wanted wet nurses without children who could not leave their positions over those with what they deemed good characters. The slave’s inability to negotiate terms for herself or her child or to cut her period of service short made her more desirable.