Full Citation

Title: African American Women, Wealth Accumulation, and Social Welfare Activism in 19th-Century Los Angelos

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2012

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.4.0376

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: The name from which California is supposedly derived is Calafia, a character in a novel by Garci Rodriguez De Montalvo, first published in 1510. The novel was set on an island completely maintained by African women, and men were only permitted for the express purpose of procreation. Otherwise, women hunted, gathered, and guarded the island. If a male was born, he was killed; but they kept and raised the female children. Rodriguez depicted the leader of this society, Queen Calafia, as the most powerful female of her time. Calafia, in the imagination of Garci Rodriguez, was not only of African origin, but was sexualized and exotic. Her followers were described as having “energetic bodies” with strong physical characteristics. The island presented a safe and utopian community almost completely without men.1 This story is one of the many myths about how California was named. This fictional California was said to be located on the right side of the Indies, and was considered close to the “Earthly Paradise.” Known . . .

Url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.4.0376?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Campbell, Marne L.

Periodical (Full): The Journal of African American History

Issue: 4

Volume: 97

Pages: 376-400

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: