Slave Families
Before we condemn black men for fathering children out of wedlock and portray their families are single parent families, we have to look into history.
In the colonial era, Slaves were treated as ‘property’ or ‘commodity’ not as legal persons. Only legal persons can enter into contracts. As a result, the marriage contract between enslaved people were not legally binding. They just cohabited and procreated. Also, the buying and selling of slaves often separated families. The father may have one owner and the mother and children may belong to a different owner. The father may visit his ‘family’ on certain nights, if they live in the same area. If they live far away, then those visits were far and few in between. Sometimes they totally lost contacts with each other. The mothers with small children have to go to work in the plantation during daytime. They leave their children in the care of another woman who was assigned for that duty. And the slave children grew up without the love of a father or even proper care of a mother. Taskmasters often abuse and beat the father and mother in front of their children. The children were scared, made them vulnerable and often revengeful. It also made deep emotional scars in the minds of the young people. And they grew up with grudge and hatred towards slave owners and taskmasters. Lack of supervision and unchecked resentment had long lasting psychological effects on the children. Became a part of their culture.
Even after slaves were set free in 1865, segregation and Jim Crow laws made it practically impossible to integrate black people and families into the mainstream. Century later in the 1960 after the Civil Right laws were enacted things started to change slowly. Still systemic racism, elements of confederacy and white supremacy groups are trying to keep the former slaves ‘in the plantation’. Election of president Trump made the segregationist elements a voice in the national forum.
American people recognize the problem and want to end racism altogether. That is good sign.
