Freewater

Chattel slavery existed in America for centuries: The earliest ship carrying enslaved people arrived on US soil in 1619, and the institution was not legally abolished until 1865. Countless people were abducted from Africa, then brought to the Americas and forced to work, often on agricultural plantations, to increase the profit margins of white plantation owners or businessmen. As generations went on, babies were born to enslaved mothers, and the law stated the condition of the mother determined the condition of the child; if the mother was enslaved, the child would be enslaved as well. Chattel slavery designated enslaved people as “personal property,” which means enslavers were allowed to “move” them by selling, trading, “gifting,” and more. Thus, enslaved people were stripped of legal rights, being unable to own property, sue white people, get married, or maintain parental rights, as their children could be sold without their consent or knowledge. Plantation owners often forced enslaved women to procreate in order to birth enslaved children for future labor—some sexually assaulting these women themselves. This is implied to be the case with Ada. Children of plantation owners often received extra abuse, especially from plantation owners’ wives who fixated on their husband’s infidelity rather than the sexual abuse of enslaved women.