PS: I find it hard to get my head around the concept that an article of property- like a hog or a hammer or a Hummer or an IPod- can seriously be regarded as "family". But maybe that's only me-

I realize I'm not the first to weight in on this quote, but...

The practice of slaveowners breeding their own "property" by forcily impregnating female slaves is, to me, the most mindboggling single aspect of the "Peculiar Institution." How could these guys keep their own flesh and blood bound in slavery? Of course, they "treated them like family" ~ more or less; it's the least they could do, and ceratinly much less than they did for their other kids, their "legitimate" all-Caucasian offspring.

No wonder there was a lot of ambivalence, and many varying shades of opinion.