“Three Sides to a Story: Slave Breeding, the Academy and Black Collective Memory in the United States”

Determining if slave breeding actually occurred or if it is merely a myth has been for the academy one of the most controversial topics in the study of American slavery. Sources such as slave narratives, oral histories, and abolitionist materials were assumed to be unreliable, and plantation financial records documenting the practice have yet to be located. While professionally trained historians are generally incredulous that slave breeding existed, black American collective memory continues to testify to its truth.