American Abolitionism and Slave-Breeding Discourse: A Re-evaluation

Abstract

Slave-breeding is a topic that has long divided American historians. Since the late nineteenth century, historians have sought out empirical evidence to prove or disprove the idea that some slave owners deliberately bred slaves for sale or to augment their own labour force. As a result, the historiographical treatment of slave-breeding has become bogged down in what Herbert Gutman called ‘the numbers game’. This essay re-examines the question of slave-breeding and challenges us to consider the broader historical meaning of such sensational accusations. It does this by focusing on the rhetoric of black and white abolitionists in the United States between 1830 and 1861. The author argues that slave-breeding discourse provided abolitionists with a narrative focal point with which to attract public attention to their concerns about the westward extension of slavery, the physical and emotional toll slavery wrought on enslaved women, and the trauma associated with the break-up of slave families.