Biogenetic engineering of black slaves
People on this thread have mentioned the appalling practice of breeding human slaves in the Antebellum South.
There's another topic of selective slave breeding so horrific and morally reprehensible that no one will talk about it or recognize it today.
It was told to me by a friend who is Afro-American. I'm just the messenger, so don't blow your cool and start ranting and raving and calling me a racist.
In the Antebellum South, wealthy slave owners stumbled upon the scientific application of crude eugenics selective breeding of black women to create desirable sexual partners and mistresses.
According to legend, the female African slave possessed a strong, curvy, desirable body to the white male slave owners, but their facial features were not all that aesthetically appealing to the white owners. Perhaps by accident or forethought, the idea of applying selective breeding of desirable genetic characteristics as applied to cows, pigs, and prized race horses, could be applied hence to human beings as well.
The appalling, horrible selective breeding of certain black women began. The African female started as the human genetic base subject. The selective genetic bioengineering process would take decades, but in essence, would introduce Caucasian genes into the black woman. It didn't take long but pleasing results appeared, black women who would resemble the beautiful late twentieth century black women like Jayne Kennedy, Halle Berry, Dorothy Dandridge and others. Mix in more Caucasian genes and white slave owners were delighted to see results like a more pleasing, attractive, carmel or tan-colored skin tone instead of the black brown of the African human; even green eyes started appearing in these little female black babies.
Now there was never any intention of breeding these women for the cotton fields. These female babies were destined for the best and classiest brothels in cosmopolitan, swinging cities like New Orleans of the early to mid 1800s. Beautiful Afro-American women with carmel colored skin and refined Caucasian features became all the rage and in high demand with the wealthy white men in the Deep South urban centers. Many became mistresses and lived comfortable lives in 'golden cages'.
The picture gets worse. The genetic experimentation didn't stop. The sophisticated slave-breeders went further. It didn't take a rocket scientist to analyze the prospects of going to the next extreme...creating a genetically enhanced white woman, with larger breasts, wider, curvier hips, fuller figure, shapely legs. Thus was created the, 'quadroon', and the 'octoroon' white woman, respectively, 1/4th African and 1/8th African. Historical anecdotes describe the quadroon and octoroon women as looking completely Caucasian. Most quadroon women could pass for all-white and every octoroon woman could pass for white. But in the deplorable racially primitive times of the 19th century, quadroon and octoroon women were legally classified as black and did not enjoy the basic rights and freedoms of 100% Caucasian people. Worse, these women could be sold and bought as property. Once again, a different fate was intended for these women. The light brown-skinned black woman and her quadroon and octoroon sisters inhabited the finest and classiest brothels in the largest deep south cities. These brothels were among the most luxurious, offering large, colorful, comfortable places for wealthy white men of all adult ages to come together and socialize along with their chosen mistresses, escorts, and one-nighters. Quadroon and octoroon women became popular. According to historical legend, the octoroon women often were the most sad. They looked in the mirror and saw a completely white face looking back but they were little better socially and legally than cotton plantation field slaves. The best they could hope for would be a long-term relationship with a wealthy white man - hopefully a younger, handsome one - as his mistress. Legend adds, that often white men did fall in love with their quadroon and octoroon mistresses, but they were forbidden to marry them.
In the early 1850s, a reknown British sculptor, John Bell, toured the Deep South. There is no hard written evidence but the story goes, he attended a slave auction and was stunned to see a white woman being sold. She even reportedly had manacles on her wrists while waiting in line. On the auction block, she had to drop her clothes and exhibit herself. Inquiring as to what was going on, Bell was reportedly told that this slave woman was 1/8th African and 7/8ths white. That is how John Bell was introduced to the concept of the octoroon. Returning to his native England, years later he sculpted a beautiful life-size marble sculpture that he titled, "The Octoroon", based on the visceral image of the octoroon woman he witnessed.
It's a most troubling part of our nation's history that I think most people are happy to forget and not think about. Yet it happened. Once more, please don't rant and rave and call me a racist. I'm just relating what was told to me many years ago by an Afro-American friend. If you want to critisize me for even talking about this, well, so be it. But often, historical truth is unpleasant and ugly, but truth is truth.