I’ve been writing about America’s slave breeding farms for years. Over time, I’ve not only gained additional knowledge but perspective. As in many investigations, the best way to understanding is to follow the money. At the same time, racism is a major factor in the treatment of enslaved people. It’s always been about the enrichment of others. The form of chattel slavery practiced in America was different and far more insidious than that practiced in most countries. Almost everywhere else, slavery was for a limited-term, and if not, the children of enslaved people were born free. In 1662, the Virginia House of Burgesses instituted a practice that soon became law throughout the colonies.
Partus Sequitur Ventrem dictated that any child born to an enslaved person follows the mother’s bloodline, deviating from past practices of following the father’s bloodline. This had the dual effect of perpetuating slavery through generations of Black people and absolving fathers, many of them white, of any responsibility. It effectively made the rape of enslaved women by their owners legal and removed any fathers’ obligation to care for or even acknowledge their children.
America’s economy was built on the availability of cheap labor, which came from two competing sources. Initially, much of that labor was provided by indentured servants, many of whom entered into five to seven-year contracts, after which they would be free and possibly receive a parcel of land and equipment to work it. Indentured servants were often treated harshly and had few liberties. While most of the initial indentured servants were European, there were also Black indentured servants. Don’t be confused into thinking they were treated the same. In 1640, five indentured servants, four white and one Black ran away to escape their harsh treatment. The four white ones were whipped and had four years added to their contract. John Punch, the Black indentured servant, was commanded to continue his service for the rest of his life. He became the first enslaved person in America. However, slavery wouldn’t become legal for another year in the colonies with the passage of the inaptly named Body of Liberties in Massachusetts.
Back to following the money. The initial economy of America was all agriculture-based. Sugar, tobacco, rice, and cotton were among the leading crops and highly labor-intensive. The two economic models, indentured servitude vs. slavery, trended toward enslavement being more profitable. The terms of indentured servitude eventually came to an end, and they were usually owed land and/or equipment at the end of their service. Enslaved people served for their lifetime and received no death benefit or retirement plan. Enslaved people often worked alongside indentured servants until Nathaniel Bacon upset the applecart.
Before 1676, there wasn’t even a thing called the white race. Then Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy white property owner, led a coalition of white and Black indentured servants and Black enslaved people in an attack on the Virginia government and Native American tribes whose land Bacon wanted. The fear of indentured servants and enslaved people joining together by class against the elite struck fear into white hearts and minds. Indentured servitude was dumped in favor of slavery. It was more profitable, and the Black enslaved were more readily identifiable, which helped keep them in place.
Jamestown’s events were alarming to the planter elite, who were deeply fearful of the multiracial alliance of [indentured servants] and slaves. Word of Bacon’s Rebellion spread far and wide, and several more uprisings of a similar type followed. To protect their superior status and economic position, the planters shifted their strategy for maintaining dominance. They abandoned their heavy reliance on indentured servants in favor of the importation of more black slaves.
Jamestown’s events were alarming to the planter elite, who were deeply fearful of the multiracial alliance of [indentured servants] and slaves. Word of Bacon’s Rebellion spread far and wide, and several more uprisings of a similar type followed. To protect their superior status and economic position, the planters shifted their strategy for maintaining dominance. They abandoned their heavy reliance on indentured servants in favor of the importation of more black slaves.
“The events in Jamestown were alarming to the planter elite, who were deeply fearful of the multiracial alliance of [indentured servants] and slaves. Word of Bacon’s Rebellion spread far and wide, and several more uprisings of a similar type followed. In an effort to protect their superior status and economic position, the planters shifted their strategy for maintaining dominance. They abandoned their heavy reliance on indentured servants in favor of the importation of more black slaves.” ~ Michelle Alexander
A century later, slavery was well entrenched as the engine that made America’s economy roar. Even the northern states, with their fledgling industrial economy, benefitted from the enslavement of people. Cotton had taken on a larger role, and the North and South were intertwined in its dependency. Simultaneously, tobacco production was falling because farmers had failed to rotate crops and use other techniques now in use in England and elsewhere. The soil was becoming depleted in minerals, and there was no longer the same need for enslaved people in the once tobacco rich states like Virginia and Maryland. Cotton producing southern states had an ever-increasing need for enslaved people. It wasn’t as simple as northern or Mideastern states selling their excess slaves further south. They were competing against the cheaper imported slaves from Africa, the majority of whom arrived in Charleston, South Carolina.
The plan to eliminate the import of the cheaper international slaves took root in the United States’ Constitution in Article One, Section Nine: Clause One, which indicated that the practice of importing slaves could not end for at least twenty years. Rewriters of history like to suggest that it was all part of a plan to gradually eliminate slavery when it was no such thing. The group of founders from South Carolina were able to get a twenty-year reprieve before their cash cow went away in favor of those from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and elsewhere that outnumbered them. James Madison gets credit for writing the majority of the Constitution. He was in constant communication with Thomas Jefferson, who had previously written the Virginia Constitution, which greatly influenced the national document. I don’t know whether Jefferson had direct input into the wording of the clause. He certainly was the driving force in implementing the end of the international slave trade in America and aiding the domestic slave trade. Jefferson himself personally benefitted from the increased demand for domestic or homegrown slaves.
Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801 and was still in office when the twenty-year ban on ending the international slave trade expired. He spent much of 1807 preparing for the January 1, 1808 date on which he could implement the ban. He got all the paperwork done and legislation passed. He expressed his concern about the human rights violations imposed on the African slaves, noting no concern for the several hundred he personally owned. He made a speech to Congress, congratulating them for the good they had done. What he proclaimed was in the country’s best interest also happened to be in the best interest of himself and his fellow Virginia landowners.
“I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe.” Thomas Jefferson
Having got what they long wanted, the elimination of the competition. Virginia plantation others and owners had the new problem of meeting the increased demand. Cotton, sugar, and rice still demanded manual labor, and one primary source had been cut off. The solution was to increase the production of domestic enslaved people, which meant slaves having more babies. That the number of children born to enslaved people went way up is well documented. Many historians and educators attributed it to a “natural increase,” as if Black slaves arbitrarily decided to have more children. The ugly truth is that masters forcibly bred their female slaves. Often pairing them with large, strong males to produce good workers. The larger the child, the better the market price.
Other children resulted from female enslaved people being raped by their white owners (or their friends and family). There was a separate market for lighter-skinned slaves who could work as house servants and sometimes as “fancies,” which is a more pleasant word for prostitutes. Not only was the rape of Black women about power and pleasure, but to the owners, it was also a good business practice.
America does not generally teach about the practice of slave breeding in its schools. It excuses those who were simply following the practice of the times. There has been no offer of restitution of reparations to Black descendants. It was something preferred forgotten or, better yet, never known. I will keep learning more about slave breeding and writing about it because until the schools teach it, somebody should.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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