Speaker 1: Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
Speaker 1: And today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground
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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about America's dirty secret, the forced
Speaker 1: breeding of enslaved people for profit. So you know all
Speaker 1: about slaves getting whipped and beaten and stripped of their names,
Speaker 1: and they had to work short, hard lives from when
Speaker 1: they were old enough to walk until they dropped dead.
Speaker 1: But did you know that they were bred? Here we go.
Speaker 1: This was written by a person first person perspective from
Speaker 1: a guy named William Spivey. If you want to check
Speaker 1: it out, I'm pulling bits and pieces just because it's
Speaker 1: a longer read, but this is what I'm able to share.
Speaker 1: I've been writing about America's slave breeding farms for years.
Speaker 1: Over time, I've not only gained additional knowledge but perspective.
Speaker 1: As in many investigations, the best way to understand is
Speaker 1: to follow the money. At the same time, racism is
Speaker 1: a major factor in the treatment of enslaved people. It's
Speaker 1: always been about the enrichment of others. The form of chattel.
Speaker 1: Slavery practice in America was different and far more insidious
Speaker 1: than that practice in most countries. Almost everywhere else, slavery
Speaker 1: was for a limited term, and if not, the children
Speaker 1: of enslaved people were born free. Couldn't do anything wrong,
Speaker 1: all right. In sixteen sixty two, the Virginia House of
Speaker 1: Burgess instituted a practice that soon became law throughout the colonies.
Speaker 1: Artist's secreiteer Ben Trim dictated that any child born to
Speaker 1: an enslaved person follows the mother's blood line, deviating from
Speaker 1: past practices of following the father's blood line. This had
Speaker 1: the dual effect of perpetuating slavery through generations of black
Speaker 1: people and absolving fathers, many of them white, of any responsibility.
Speaker 1: It effectively made the rape of enslaved women by their
Speaker 1: owners legal and removed any father's obligation to care for
Speaker 1: or even acknowledge their children. Okay, where are the dead be, dads?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, that's a different conversation, all right, let's get
Speaker 1: back to it. Before sixteen seventy six, there wasn't even
Speaker 1: a thing called the white race. Then Nathaniel Bacon, a
Speaker 1: wealthy white property owner, led a coalition of white and
Speaker 1: black indentured servants and black enslaved people in an attack
Speaker 1: on the Virginia government and Native American tribes whose land
Speaker 1: Bacon wanted. The fear of indentured servants and enslaved people
Speaker 1: joining together by class against the elite struck fear into
Speaker 1: white hearts and minds. Indentured servitude was dumped in favor
Speaker 1: of slavery. It was more profitable, and the black enslaved
Speaker 1: were more readily identifiable, which helped keep them in place.
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson became president in eighteen oh one and was
Speaker 1: still in office when the twenty year ban on ending
Speaker 1: the international slave trade expired. Virginia plantation owners and other
Speaker 1: owners had the new problem of meeting the increased demand. Cotton, sugar,
Speaker 1: and rice still demanded manual labor, and one primary source
Speaker 1: had been cut off. The solution was to increase the
Speaker 1: production of domestic in slave people, which meant slaves having
Speaker 1: more babies since they couldn't bring them by boat anymore.
Speaker 1: That the number of children born to enslaved people went
Speaker 1: way up, as well documented, Many historians and educators attributed
Speaker 1: to a natural increase, as if black slaves arbitrarily decided
Speaker 1: to have more children. The ugly truth is that the
Speaker 1: masters forcibly bred their female slaves, often pairing them with large,
Speaker 1: strong males to produce good workers. The larger the child,
Speaker 1: the better the market price. Other children resulted from female
Speaker 1: enslave people being raped by their white owners or their
Speaker 1: friends and family. There was a separate market for lighter
Speaker 1: skinned slaves who could work as house servants and sometimes
Speaker 1: as fancies, which is a more pleasant word for prostitutes.
Speaker 1: Not only was the rape of black women about power
Speaker 1: and pleasure, but to the owners it was also a
Speaker 1: good business practice. Americas not generally teach about the practice
Speaker 1: of slave breeding in its schools. It excuses those who
Speaker 1: were simply following the practice of the times. There has
Speaker 1: been no offer of restitution or reparation to black descendants.
Speaker 1: It was something preferred forgotten or better yet not ever known.