Book contents
- Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
- African Studies Series
- Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Senegal
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Urban Senegal in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
- 2 The Evolution of Tutelle
- 3 Adoption of Minors and State Control of Tutelle
- 4 Legislating Guardianship, 1848–1900
- 5 Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
- 6 The Crisis of 1903 and 1904
- 7 Minors in Institutions
- 8 Marriage, Life, Death, and Abuse
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
5 - Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2023
- Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
- African Studies Series
- Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Senegal
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Urban Senegal in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
- 2 The Evolution of Tutelle
- 3 Adoption of Minors and State Control of Tutelle
- 4 Legislating Guardianship, 1848–1900
- 5 Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
- 6 The Crisis of 1903 and 1904
- 7 Minors in Institutions
- 8 Marriage, Life, Death, and Abuse
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
Chapter 5 deals extensively with tutelle in the late nineteenth century by concentrating on the working lives of minors, mostly as apprentices and domestics. Minors performed a wide variety of tasks, some of them gender-specific. Young girls did mostly household and domestic tasks; boys became apprentices and learned artisanal crafts. Of the artisanal crafts, carpentry was the most popular, but masons, blacksmiths, tailors, seamstresses, and grain pounders took wards as apprentices. In the 1880s and 1890s, the state confided minors to institutions including Catholic missions, though not always to serve as apprentices. Case studies detail the ways in which their labor was exploited and how they responded to coercion and abuse. They reveal considerable delinquency and misery, which sometimes led to incarceration. The relationship between minors and their guardians in work settings was often characterized by discord, even violence. The chapter explores abuses in tutelle including the hiring out of minors without informing French authorities and the refusal of guardians to compensate minors for their labor when warranted. The chapter analyzes complaints lodged by guardians about minors and the ways in which minors exercised agency. It ends with an exploration of sexual exploitation and prostitution.
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- Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal , pp. 101 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023