Building Families
Some masters were so cruel that they didn’t allow enslaved women to pick their own partners, but not every master worked this way. Some white families allowed enslaved men and women to pick who they were attracted to and form their own relationships. They allowed this because they knew the more children the couple created, the more workers they would have in their fields. For enslaved people, creating some sort of a family made their lives feel somewhat normal. Eventually, families grew larger and larger and even served as a way to disseminate information, pass down stories and maintain African culture.
