Slave breeding in the United States

Slave breeding was the practice in slave states of the United States of slave owners systematically forcing slaves to have sexual relations and bear children. It included coerced sexual relations between slaves; forced pregnancies of female slaves; and forced breeding of specific slaves in hopes of producing relatively stronger future slaves. The objective was for slave owners to increase the number of people they enslaved without incurring the cost of purchase, to fill labor shortages caused by the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, and to promote desired physical characteristics.