[Campion]

True, but something like a third of Southerners had a slave in their household.

I think that number is too high.

I imagine daddy, his sons, visiting male family members and assorted male guests were all free to sample the pleasures of the female slaves of the the household.

No, I don't think the antebellum South bore quite that much resemblance to your college dorm.

[Modernman]

I think that number is too high.

Think of it this way- the title to a car is owned by the father in a family of 5. Though there is only one legal owner of the car, all 5 family members derive a benefit from that car. Same thing with slaves.

No, I don't think the antebellum South bore quite that much resemblance to your college dorm.

I guess it's just a strange quirk of nature that so many of the descendants of slaves in this country have at least some "white" physical traits not shared by their contemporaries in West Africa.

[cyborg]

Laws against miscegenation didn't stop anything. Imagine what you will but when men know they have free liberty they will take it. A woman of color had no rights and a white man didn't need to be a slave owner to have a white wife and a little brown sugar on the side.