Slave women who thought they would be granted their freedom after ten or fifteen children would continue having babies until their bodies no longer allowed it.
Young slave girls who had children early on were viewed as being worthy property, and most masters would not sell them off the plantation. It was the norm for young slave girls to have their first child out of wedlock. Young breeding aged girls who gave their white master as many as ten or fifteen children were promised with freedom papers. But in a study done by Carnegie Mellon University, a common practice found among slave owners was to make young slaves between the ages of 13 and 14 sleep naked together in a room to encourage more breeding. Many young girls were r*ped during this time. By the time they were twenty, most already had given birth to as many as five children. Most young girls by the age of thirteen and fourteen were already mothers. Historian Herbert Gutman conducted research on the women of the Good Hope Plantation of Orangeburg, South Carolina and what he found was heart wrenching but nonetheless expected.