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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]