Thomas Jefferson calculated the supplemental income he earned from the reproduction of his slaves. In 1792, while recounting the profits of the prior year in a letter to George Washington, he relayed his estimates, explaining that—in addition to his usual business—he was earning a 4 percent profit through the birth of children. Jefferson later offered an even more generous projection of the possibilities for “silent profit,” recommending that a family in financial distress lay out “every farthing … in land and negroes, which besides a present support bring a silent profit of from 5. to 10. per
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