HOW AMERICAN SLAVES WERE BRED
American slaves were bred through forced sexual relations between male and female slaves. This breeding was intended to result in pregnancies to reproduce slave children as essential stock for trade.
This often involved coerced sexual relations and forced pregnancies. The goal was to increase the number of enslaved people without the cost of purchasing them, especially after the importation of enslaved Africans was banned.
A 1662 law in Virginia, known as partus sequitur ventrem.
Partus sequitur ventrem was a legal doctrine in colonial Virginia and other English crown colonies in the Americas. It defined the legal status of children born there, mandating that children of enslaved mothers would inherit their mother's status as enslaved individuals.
Offering incentives: In some cases, enslaved individuals were given small rewards (e.g., food, privileges, or slight reductions in labor) for having children.
Manipulating living conditions: Slaveholders sometimes deliberately placed more men and women together in quarters to increase the chances of reproduction.
Forced breeding: Enslaved men were sometimes compelled to impregnate women chosen by their owners, often referred to as being "used as a stud."
Teenage pregnancies: Girls as young as 12 or 13 were often pressured or forced to begin having children as soon as they were physically able.
Some plantations were deliberately run as "breeding farms" where enslaved women were forced to have multiple children in rapid succession.
Enslaved families were often torn apart through sale, but breeding practices also disrupted familial bonds. Slaveholders typically had no regard for parental relationships, often separating mothers from their children or forcing incestuous pairings.
Slaveholders sometimes engaged in pseudo-eugenics, attempting to create "stronger" enslaved workers by breeding individuals who they thought had desirable physical traits.