Calvin Smith was a wealthy American planter in the antebellum South who operated a notorious slave breeding farm. His plantation was infamous for its focus on breeding biracial children, or mulattoes, who were often sold at higher prices than their Black counterparts.
Slave breeding involved the forced reproduction of enslaved people to increase the number of slaves available for labor or sale. This practice became particularly popular after the importation of Africans into the US was abolished in 1808. With the external supply of Africans cut off, plantation owners turned to internal methods to sustain and grow their enslaved workforce. Breeding farms, like Calvin Smith’s, were established to maximize the number of enslaved children born, often through coercive and violent means. As Frederick Douglass noted in his 1892 work, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, and as other accounts corroborate, the breeding of enslaved Africans became a crucial part of the economic model of slavery in the US.
This practice was especially important in the cotton plantations of the South, where the demand for labor was insatiable. The forced reproduction of enslaved Africans was seen as a way to increase the enslaved population without having to purchase new slaves. This transition from importing enslaved individuals to breeding them locally was financially advantageous for slaveholders, as it ensured a steady supply of labor without the added cost of purchasing new slaves.
Enslavers often bred slaves for specific traits, depending on their needs. Some slaves were bred for physical strength and endurance, making them suitable for hard labor in the fields, A typical example of this is Luke Blackshear, an enslaved African in Alabama who was referred to as the “Giant Breeder.” Luke, who was described as being built like a rock, fathered 56 children during his time as a “breeder.”
Others were bred for perceived aesthetic qualities, particularly biracial children, who were often seen as more desirable for domestic work or as “fancy girls” (forced into prostitution or concubinage). This selective breeding was similar to the way livestock was managed, with enslavers aiming to produce offspring that would fetch the highest prices on the market.
This economic incentive created a perverse competition among planters, who vied to produce the most mulattoes for sale. In some cases, white fathers even sold their own offspring—children born from the rape of enslaved women—for financial gain.
The demand for these children was high, leading men like Smith to create breeding farms solely for this purpose.
Calvin Smith’s plantation, located near Natchez, Mississippi, was infamous for its role in the breeding and sale of biracial, or “mulatto,” children. Accounts describe the plantation as holding fifty to sixty enslaved women at any given time, solely for the purpose of reproduction. White men were the only ones permitted access to these women. Between twenty and twenty-five children were bred annually on Smith’s farm, where they were treated as livestock—sold as soon as they were deemed fit for labor or sale.
In a way, Calvin Smith was not just a slave master but also a pimp. He controlled the enslaved women on his plantation in the same way a pimp controls sex workers by profiting from their bodies. He ensured they bore as many children as possible, not for their own benefit, but for his financial gain.
White men, who were the only ones allowed on Bargrass Farm, had access to enslaved women without consequences. They impregnated them, and Smith reaped the profits from the children who were born into slavery. Just like a pimp, he facilitated sexual exploitation, turned human suffering into a business, and profited from the forced reproduction of the women under his control.
This practice contributed to the rise of a mixed-race population, often referred to as “mulattoes,” whose lighter skin frequently commanded higher market values.
Smith’s cruelty was not limited to his breeding practices. Historical records, including accounts from James Robinson, an African enslaved on Calvin’s farm, recount the brutal punishments inflicted by Smith. In one harrowing account, Robinson’s cousin, who had recently been enslaved on Smith’s plantation, was subjected to relentless floggings, burns, saltings, and other forms of torture, which resulted in his death within a week. Although a criminal inquest was conducted into the incident, neither Smith nor his overseer faced any legal repercussions.
Smith’s wealth and status as a planter shielded his reputation from widespread criticism during his lifetime. Upon his death in 1840, obituaries referred to him as “respected” and “highly respectable,” a stark contrast to the atrocities committed on his plantations.
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