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.
enslaved women were expected to be pregnant constantly. as early as possible, as long as possible. until their bodies gave out from child bearing. and it was expected that the children could be sold. a child, an enslaved child is worth 7500 or $100 at birth depending on place and time. that didn t mean that a baby was going to be sold. there was no market in babies. but it meant that the slave owner was worth $75 or $100 more on paper. and could borrow that much more which was so to say new money was created. so the world from 389,000 africans to four million enslaved april can americans in 1960 was itself an economic expansion. the book when you sat down i was saying the book is enormous. it is literally hefty. that is a physical manifestation of how hefty and weighty this issue is. thank you for the text, the american slave coast.