Children of the plantation

The men who fathered these children often used their power and authority to rape the black females (girls and/or women) (often 13 to 16 years old or when they commenced menstruation) who were under their control.

Some of the fathers treated these children well, sometimes providing educational or career opportunities, or manumitting (freeing) them.

Examples are Archibald and Francis Grimké, and Thomas Jefferson's children by Sally Hemings.

Alex Haley's Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993) is a historical novel, later a movie, that brought knowledge of the "children of the plantation" to public attention.

Toni Morrison wrote that this sexual usage of slaves was known as droit du seigneur,[1] the "right of the lord", a term originating in the feudalism of medieval Europe.

A rare instance of a mixed race baby portrayed next to the baby's darker mother. John Brown , about to be hanged, kisses the baby. Louis Ransom, 1863, reproduced as a Currier & Ives print.