Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Lesson Plan

Consider the following passage on page 193: “At the south, a gentleman may have a shoal of colored children without any disgrace; but if he is known to purchase them, with the view of setting them free, the example is thought to be dangerous to their ‘peculiar institution,’ and he becomes unpopular.” What does this social code say about the moral and economic foundations of the “peculiar institution”?

The social code that upholds slavery is both patriarchal and profit-minded. It is patriarchal in the sense that it privileges the needs and desires of (white) men, allowing that men should be able to rape their slaves as they please. It is profit-minded in the sense that...