Slave breeding in the United States was the practice in slave states of the United States of slave owners to systematically promote the reproduction of slaves to increase their returns.[1] Slave breeding included coerced sexual relations between male and female slaves, forced pregnancies of slaves, and favoring female slaves who could produce a relatively large number of children.[1] The objective was to increase the number of slaves without incurring the cost of purchase, and to fill labor shortages caused by the termination of the Atlantic slave trade.[2]
Selective breeding between slaves with the aim of developing particular physical traits was uncommon, however,[3] as most slaves were unrestricted in their choice of sexual partners.[4]
