Rape of enslaved women became economically rational once children inherited the mother’s status

Evidence

This doctrine, known as partus sequitur ventrem (“that which is brought forth follows the belly”), is a departure from English tradition, in which a child’s status followed that of the father. The law incentivizes the rape of enslaved Black women by their white enslavers. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 178

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: how a single legal doctrine turned sexual violence into a wealth-accumulation strategy, and what that reveals about the entanglement of law, race, and economics.
• XREF: connects to: Sedentary agriculture gives motherhood sacred status because property demands heirs — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 161