POWER HISTORY
Families before the abolition of slavery experienced separation and reunion. Slaves were separated from their families and were sold to liquidate estates, settle debts, and sometimes given away as wedding presents. Over 19% of all slave marriages were forced to separate. Males were mainly taken away from their families as often. There was a preference for young slaves as analysis showed that slaveowners removed 7 percent of slave children within the eight to eleven age cohort from their families. Another 14 percent of slave children aged twelve to fourteen were sold, and children in the eight to fourteen age cohort were involved in 25 percent of all sales.
Black History Month: The Slave Experience For Families FAMILIES WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF SLAVERY Slaves and masters had varied perspectives on the concept of family. Masters had complete control over their slaves, including the authority to sell family members on the spur of the moment. Slave masters also believed they acted in the slave family’s best interests. Slaveholders sold their slaves for economic reasons, and no laws prohibited the dissolution of any slave family. Husbands and wives were separated, and mothers were separated from their children. Slaves were often threatened to be separated from their family members by their masters. Slaves formed extended ties by integrating close relatives into the family bond due to the constant threat of separation. To extend connection and memory, slaves frequently named their offspring after close relatives. They dreaded the auction block and the potential of losing themselves or 68 | FEBRUARY 2022
a family member, perhaps to the Deep South, never to be seen again. Slaves, contrary to their owners’ beliefs, had a strong bond with their families, and this affection extended to close relatives within the extended family. Evidence of slave family separations became more apparent as the Civil War (1861–1865) concluded. In 1863, the U.S. Congress created the Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission to hear the experiencesForced of slave families. Testifying before the commission was Solomon Bradley, a former slave from South Carolina who had enlisted in the South Carolina Colored Created in March 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, became the first federal social welfare agency. Although the agency was not tasked with finding and reuniting ex-slave families, the overwhelming demand
