"We desired the court to have held that they were citizens so far at least as to entitle them to a hearing as to whether they were free or not; and then, also, that they were in fact and in law really free. Could we have had our way, the chances of these black girls, ever mixing their blood with that of white people, would have been diminished at least to the extent that it could not have been without their consent. But Judge Douglass is delighted to have them decided to be slaves, and not human enough to have a hearing, even if they were free, and thus left subject to the forced concubinage of their masters, and liable to become the mothers of mulattoes in spite of themselves--the very state of case that produces nine tenths of all the mulattoes-- all the mixing of the blood in the nation."
In this passage Lincoln is making a point regarding keeping women as slaves simply because they did not "originate" in this nation. Lincoln is stating that even if these girls were freed, they would end up in the same situation. Lincoln is also pointing out that although bloods are not supposed to be mixed, it is fact the white slave owners that end up taking advantage of these women and impregnating them against their will. This is the classic scenario where we are telling the Slave owners/traders that they can do what they want with the girls as long as they are not public with it. Many mulatto babies are made within a household because the men could not control their urges, but the women are expected to do whatever they are told.
B. Twentieth-century artist Romare Bearden presents a stylized depiction of the odyssey of captives from Africa to the United States. The ship shows the low decks that were constructed on slaving vessels so that the maximum number of African captives could be transported. A black man's silhouette frames a view of the African continent, a U.S. flag, and seabirds thought to symbolize the souls of Africans returning to their homeland.
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