war? breeding, systemic breeding used to destroy black families and to increase the capital of the ruling slave holder class. it s a part of the american story that often falls by the way side but a new book places it at the very center of our nation s history. joining me now is ned sublet, co-author of the book the american slave coast: the history of the slave breeding industry. thank you for being here. this text created a circumstance for one of my producers who was reading through it to just write across it, nothing is clean. everything is slavery, right? just that sense that the centrality of the economic aspect of slavery to the contemporary american system. that s right. slavery is at the center of american history. it s not a sidebar. but people often talk about slavery as though it were only labor. and slaves were not just workers. they were merchandised. they were collateral.