Children of the plantation

"Children of the plantation" was a euphemism used during the time of slavery in the United States, to identify the offspring of enslaved black women and white men, usually the owner or one of his sons or the plantation overseer.

Such children, who were born into slavery (a legal doctrine known as partus sequitur ventrem), were seldom acknowledged by their white fathers. These children were classified as mulattoes, a historic term for a multiracial person. The one drop rule meant that they could never be part of white society.

Alex Haley's Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993) is a historical novel, later a movie, that brought knowledge of the "children of the plantation" to public attention.

Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family (1998), written by a white descendant of slave owners, describes this complex legacy.

After the Civil War and emancipation in 1863, similar relationships continued. For example, Strom Thurmond, who as a senator pursued segregationist policies, fathered a child when he was a young man with his family's 16-year-old maid. This daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, did not reveal the story until he died, when she was 78. Her parentage had been an open secret in the black community, but came as a surprise to the late senator's colleagues.[1]

Toni Morrison wrote that this sexual usage of slaves was known as droit du seigneur,[2] the "right of the lord".

See also

References
  1. Gettleman, Jeffery (December 18, 2003). "Final Word: 'My Father's Name Was James Strom Thurmond'". New York Times.
  2. Morrison, Toni (2017). The Origin of Others. Harvard University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-674-97645-0.
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