Enslaved women’s unborn children were already legally designated property

Evidence

As for Renty, her son and my great-grandfather, I had another clarifying realization: “Her increase” meant any children she gave birth to. My great-grandfather Renty Taylor Thompson was not yet born, yet he was already enslaved. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 375

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the legal term “her increase” in bequest language, meaning children born to an enslaved woman were property at birth.