Children of the plantation

Common card · No. 266043

"Children of the plantation" is a euphemism referring to people with ancestry tracing back to the time of slavery in the United States in which the offspring was born to black African female slaves (either still in the state of slavery or freed) in the context of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and non-black men, usually the slave's owner, one of the owner's relatives, or the plantation overseer. These children were often considered to be the property of the slave owner and were often subjected to the same treatment as other slaves on the plantation. Many of these children were born into slavery and had no legal rights, as they were not recognized as the legitimate children of their fathers. The men who fathered these children often used their power and authority to rape the black women who were under their control. Sometimes, girls as young as 13 were mothers in this case. Plantation owners raping enslaved women was a common occurrence. These children were born into slavery, through a legal...

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