The inspiration for today’s topic comes from a heated discussion ongoing from an episode of the TV show The Real. The Real is a talk show that prides itself on being centered on conversations on current events, fashion, family, relationships, and celebrity news. The show’s hosts include Jeannie Mai, Adrienne Bailon, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Loni Love, and now Amanda Seales. The show’s hook is presenting real topics, having real discussions, and giving very real opinions. However, some audiences do not find the show as authentic as it prides itself to be, and Loni’s comments add a lot of fuel to that fire.
Co-host Loni Love found herself in some hot water over her comments about Black men, cheating, and slavery. Here is a clip of what was said:
“I don’t speak for the Black community, but I do think a lot of Black men…they really don’t know how to have true, faithful relationships. They think because they have money…because they have power that they can treat women any kind of way….What is happening is that we are still dealing with the point of slavery, and we are descendants of slavery, and because our families were broken up, we still do not know how to have…together, cause our families were broken up…”
She failed, in my opinion, to clearly articulate her point, but she is receiving backlash nonetheless. Her comment opened the door for further discussion on this topic. I would like to use it as the catalyst for exploring what relationships were like for enslaved men and women and whether there is any truth in Loni’s statement.
Questions to ponder as you read:
- Should we isolate Black men as cheaters who use money and power to take advantage of women?
- Is it fair to use slavery to support the theory that Black men, in particular, have a problem being faithful in relationships?
- Are we descendants of slaves? Or are we descendants of people who were enslaved?
Family separation became increasingly common during the antebellum period, and being sold on the New Year was common. Widely known as “Hiring Day” — or “Heartbreak Day,” as the Black abolitionist journalist William Cooper Nell described it — enslaved people spent New Year’s Eve waiting, wondering if their owners would rent them out to someone else, which would split up their families. (Waxman, O, 2019)
“Hiring Day” was part of the larger economic cycle in which most debts were collected and settled on New Year Day,” says Alexis McCrossen, an expert on the history of New Year Eve and New Year Day and a professor of history at Southern Methodist University, who writes about Hiring Day in her forthcoming book Time’s Touchstone: The New Year in American Life.
Enslaved people were bought and sold like cattle, and auctioneers appraised women based on their ability to reproduce. Women who birthed children during slavery were called “breeders,” and their children were referred to as the “increase.” The mother and father of the “increase” could have been a legitimate couple, or they could have been forced together.
Black people were not people in this sense; they were commodities. Their bodies had a price tag. Slave-masters/owners could mortgage, loan, trade, or exchange the enslaved body. “The nature of exchanging enslaved people meant that this seller was open to the idea of getting them back, perhaps after the child reached a certain age and the mother was no longer breastfeeding.” (Berry, D, pp 20)
Enslaved men, women, and children incurred interest, and even in death, the enslaved body was traded and sold, many of them ending up on the tables of medical schools for hands-on medical research. Slave farms existed, where Black men and women were raped and forced to have sex with one another. “The South,” writes Sublettes, co-author of The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry, not only produced tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton as commodities for sale; it produced people.”
“Because slaves were property, Southern slave owners could mortgage them to banks and then the banks could package the mortgages into bonds and sell the bonds to anyone anywhere in the world, even where slavery was illegal. Thomas Jefferson bragged to George Washington that the birth of black children was increasing Virginia’s capital stock by four percent annually.”
– The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry
Enslaved couples were not married or in a relationship in the same way men and women are married or in a relationship today. Since this is a personal part of enslaved life, it’s difficult for historians to say how these relationships worked or did not work.
“Research into the intimate areas of slaves’ lives has proven problematic for historians because the typicality of private sentiments is always hard to establish, and within slave testimony such as the WPA narratives, the reference to issues of marital discord, abuse, or adultery is rare.”
What we know is that it was illegal for Blacks to marry in the traditional sense, that many of them were forced together for breeding, and that some enslaved couples did not live on the same plantation. There’s something else we know: due to the complex and brutal system of slavery, relationship bonds between Black men and women (that weren’t forced or instituted by the slave owner) were strong. “Marital ties created bonds that warrant attention equal to the bonds of motherhood.” (Berry)
Enslaved couples who married under slavery loved each other deeply because there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be sold away from one another. Take the story of Tamar, an enslaved woman from Camden County, North Carolina, who ran away several times, was sold several times, and had her children sold multiple times. According to her brother’s testimony, Tamar “traveled by night, and hid herself in the woods.” (Berry) While in hiding, she had more children with her husband. Pregnancy, in this case, could have resulted from genuine love and marital affairs.
In The Chords of Love: Legalizing Black Marital and Family Rights in Postwar Texas, Crouch tells the story of Fannie, a slave woman who wrote a loving letter to her husband. “I haven’t forgot you,” she writes, “nor I never will forget you as long as the world stands.” (Crouch, B, Journal of African American History)
“…it’s not across the board because what is happening is that we are still dealing with the point of slavery. And we are descendants of slavery and because our families were broken up…” – Loni Love
Is there a correlation between a Black man who cheats and the enslaved Black man who was forced to have sex with and impregnate lots of women without attachment or commitment? Has this trauma passed down through generations caused Black men to perpetuate similar behaviors as were required during slavery? Is this what Loni Love of The Real was trying to communicate?
Certainly, we have all inherited both good and toxic behaviors from our ancestors in one way or another. Today, many Black families say they eat pork because “at slavery times that’s all we had to eat, so we made food taste good by trying things out,” says Big Mama in the 1997 movie Soul Food.
But Black people aren’t the only people who eat pork, nor are we the only people who are known for eating pork.
“Cheating is a matter of choice. And when you cheat it is a choice that you as a man are making to feed your ego. It has nothing to do with your boys not being around. It has nothing to do with men working too hard. It’s not a matter of race. Men make choices and cheating is always a poor choice because it’s ego-driven.”
– Charlamagne tha God
While there are certainly questionable actions we’ve picked up from being enslaved people, there is no evidence that directly links Black men cheating to slavery. Cheating is not a trauma-based response from slavery that causes Black men to be untrustworthy and unfaithful more than any other race. Men and women of all races and backgrounds make poor choices that cause them to cheat for one reason or another.
What further complicates things is that Adrienne adds that this is true “Across the board,” which is a good point. This could have been an opportunity for further clarity, historical context, and teaching. Still, Loni cuts her off, further clarifying her point that she is specifically talking about Black people and, in particular, Black men:
“No, it’s not across the board because what is happening is that we are still dealing with the point of slavery. And we are descendants of slavery and because our families were broken up we still do not have a idea of how to have…together, families were broken up…”
We are not descendants of slavery.
We are the descendants of a people who were enslaved.
If it’s true that because of slavery Black men struggle with fidelity, then we also have to say something about the white slave masters who raped and forced Black men and women to breed. And we have to talk about the white slaveowners who cheated on their white wives with Black women.
Black men during slavery did not have the same capacity to cheat as men and women have today. Marriage during slavery did not mean the couple could exercise fidelity because they did not have the right to their own bodies. While married, the wife may have had children by the master after being raped by him and the husband could have also fathered more children through force. The only guarantee was the love each had for one another and the hope that they could see each other as often as was allowed and cultivate some sense of normalcy for their families (as normal as was possible under slavery).
Is it fair to say, “Lots of white men beat their wives because they are the descendants of slave-owners and masters who beat their slaves?” Is it ever fair to make generalizations about a group of people, gender, or race?
Imagine the frustration of being a Black man in America, honorable and striving only to look and see your own woman (The Black Woman) consistently publicly declare to the world that you are not capable of doing right.
“Black men everyday are dealing with our character being shamed.”
– Willie D
If we say, “Black men don’t know how to be faithful because we are still dealing with the point of slavery,” we miseducate people on the history of our enslavement. Next, we alienate Black men, assume Black women and other races of people (across the board) don’t cheat, and throw Black men under the bus.
Books I recommend for further research on Slave Breeding and Blacks used as Commodities:
The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry by Ned and Constance Sublette
The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation by Daina Ramey Berry
Medical Apartheid: The Dark Experimentation on Blacks from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
The PBS Blog 