The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal

Flores-Villalobos argues that Black West Indian women fed, housed, and cared for the segregated Black West Indian labor force, subsidizing the construction effort. They did not hold contracts, had little access to official services and wages, and received pay in both silver and gold even though most other black workers were paid only in silver, while white workers were paid only in gold. West Indian women developed important strategies that helped them navigate the U.S. empire and nurtured further West Indian migrations, linking Panama to Harlem and Cuba.