fecundity – female fertility and ability to give birth to many offspring

“Because of the general shortage of space, masters discouraged their slaves from establishing families in the cities. Women with reputations for fecundity found few buyers, and some slaveholders sold their domestics at the first sign of pregnancy.” (Ira Berlin, “Time, Space and the Evolution of Afro-American Society on Mainland British North America.” The American Historical Review, Vol. 85, No. 1, Feb. 1980, p 48.)

• This might be one of the strongest points that demonstrates Berlin’s thesis on time and space as the boundaries influencing the development of black society in North America, since it highlights the restrictions of housing in Northern cities and the major difference from the South where enslaved offspring were seen as extremely profitable and encouraged.
• This quote seems to indicate the foundations of the persistent geographic and racial discrimination against black women and their reproductive rights.
• Interesting to consider whether any of these sales were influenced by secret and forced sexual relations, which was not addressed in Berlin’s article.

Janelle Poe

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