# how were slaves "bred"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794 "2002-12-01T18:18:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/41 "2014-08-12T22:26:21Z")
And the [_Dred Scott_](http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/60/393) decision, while certainly bad enough, did not say that blacks are not _people_; it said that blacks (even blacks who had been manumitted in accordance with established legal procedures, or whose ancestors had been thus freed) were not and could not be _citizens_. Partly it seems very strange to us now to say that a _person_ is also “property”, but the essence of slavery is declaring that some _people_ are nonetheless _owned_ by other people. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/42 "2014-08-13T02:41:28Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I seem to remember that it was just the part of the Roots story based in Africa was questioned. I guess because of the lack of records and the reliance on anecdote. The parts of the story based In the US, may have had more evidence to go on. No, there were definitely allegations of [plagarism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots:_The_Saga_of_an_American_Family#Criticism), from at least two authors, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/43 "2014-08-13T10:14:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Romans could not sleep with slaves: against the law. If you were caught at it, you were in trouble, and could lose your citizenship. I’m not so sure about that. Slaves were commonly used in brothels, for instance. And on p70 of the book is the line, ‘It is an occupational hazard that you will get some of your slave girls pregnant’ and in the commentary on p76 Mary Beard writes ‘There is plenty of evidence for the sexual abuse of slaves’ and ‘Unwanted slave pregnancies were sufficiently common to joke about…’. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/44 "2014-08-13T18:55:49Z")
Quite a lengthy document on the rules of citizenship, slavery and the number of combinations of situations where someone gains or inherits slavery, freedom, or citizenship. > [@](#): > > Gaius institutes 1(88) > If a female slave should conceive by a Roman citizen and afterwards, having been manumitted, should become a Roman citizen and a child should be born, although the latter would be a Roman citizen like its father, it would still not be under the control of the latter, for the reason that it was not conceived in lawful marriage, and because an union of this kind is not declared to be legal by any decree of the Senate. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/45 "2014-08-13T19:49:41Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Quite a lengthy document on the rules of citizenship, slavery and the number of combinations of situations where someone gains or inherits slavery, freedom, or citizenship. Ah, that’s referring to a marriage between citizen and slave, not a mating, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794/46 "2014-08-13T20:42:41Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Ah, that’s referring to a marriage between citizen and slave, not a mating, isn’t it? yes, I went through a number of the laws and saw I think only one that referred to an illegitimate child, but not from a slave. A lot of “what if A is a citizen, B is a foreigner/freed slave/Latinum, etc.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-slaves-bred/139794.md?page=2)