A sophisticated exploration of the intricacies of motherhood and health care practices of people of African descent, especially the enslaved population of Virginia, can shed light on their notions of a well-lived life and the factors preventing or contributing to these principles. I situate my dissertation within this ideal as I examine how the health and well-being of enslaved people were linked to broader issues of economic exploitation, domination, resistance, accommodation, and cultural interactions. Historical and archaeological studies have shown that the living and working conditions of enslaved people were detrimental to their health. Building on these findings, I explore how aware were blacks of these impediments to their well-being and the pursuit of a wholesome life, and what means these populations employed to change the negative tangibles and intangibles of slave societies. These questions are best studied from a multi-disciplinary perspective and by using a variety of evidence.;Therefore, I collate and wed diverse selections of documentary evidence---a complex assortment of texts covering history, oral tradition, and narratives---with material cultural evidence, mainly from archaeological excavations and historic landscapes, to show the complex web of objects, beliefs, and practices that constituted this arena of well-being and autonomy. I discuss how issues of well-being intertwined with gender and race relations and how these were played out in many acts of motherhood and child care, struggles over foods and health care, other verbal and physical fights, and how the landscape and objects were implicated in social relations. I focus on Virginia but use examples from other slave societies for comparative purposes.;Blacks juxtaposed their cultural ways with those of whites and, at times, found the latter below black standards for a wholesome life. Therefore, while being open-minded toward some practices and beliefs from whites, blacks continued to maintain separate activities. This dissertation presents and interprets the ideals and practices of enslaved blacks and their descendants and shows how they created and reinforced their identity as a people capable of caring not only for themselves, but for whites as well.

In 1807, Charles Fraser lauded fellow miniature artist Edward Greene Malbone's ability to produce "such striking resemblances, that they will never fail to perpetuate the tenderness of friendship, to divert the cares of absence, and to aid affection in dwelling on those features and that image which death has forever wrested from it." The explanations traditionally given for the commissioning of portraits--the perpetuation of family or institutional memory--correspond with Fraser's comments. Yet these explanations rarely incorporate the social context: the communities in which images were produced and the individual, familial, or group meanings of portraits.;"Facing Philadelphia: The Social Functions of Silhouettes, Miniatures, and Daguerreotypes, 1760-1860" explores some of the forces that shaped a century of portrait patronage in one of America's most prosperous urban centers. My research reveals that different sectors of Philadelphia's elites had decided preferences for specific types of portraits. These patterns suggest that production and patronage were rooted in the meanings that portraits had for certain groups, meanings that were connected to social, economic, religious, and political conditions in Philadelphia.;Whether stark silhouettes for Quakers or individual artists' miniatures for the established mercantile elite, the appeal of small-scale portraits was partially due to their appearance and to their traditional desirability as gifts. Novelty, price, and availability helped create demand for daguerreotypic likenesses. Yet local scientific interest, Quaker mores regarding material life, and the desire for engravings and miniatures based on photographic images also determined daguerreotype patronage. The connections among the different sectors of the art market also suggest ways in which the distinctions between "high" and "low" art become blurred upon closer examination.;In their portrait choices, Philadelphians extended long-term cultural practices and modified others in ways that embodied local needs as well as incorporated broader national and international trends. They used small-scale portraits in particular ways, adapting widely available forms to specific, socially derived needs. Through their commission and use of portraits, Philadelphians simultaneously crafted their identities and shaped art markets.

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