Slave Breeding Quotes

“how former slaves and their descendants imagined the moral worldview that once anchored the daily life of the slave master, the plantation overseer, and the slave trader.”
― Gregory D. Smithers, Slave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History

“Slave breeding, as coercive, often violent, reproductive practices were known among the enslaved and their descendants, structured African American historical, ethnographic, and cultural understandings of black life in the United States.”
― Gregory D. Smithers, Slave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History

“My marster . . . started out wid two ’omen slaves and raised 300 slaves.” So testified John Smith, a 108-year-old former slave who was interviewed by a Works Project Administration employee in the late 1930s.”
― Gregory D. Smithers, Slave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History

“He recalled that “Short Peggy” and “Long Peggy,” the two women his master “started out wid,” were prized for their fecundity. The sexual exploitation that Smith claimed these women experienced led to the reproduction of slaves who enriched Smith’s master through their labor or sale.”
― Gregory D. Smithers, Slave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History