According to Frederick Douglass, when an enslaved woman had a child, it was a common practice for the slaveholder to separate the child from the mother. The slaveholder would often sell the child to different owners, resulting in the forced and traumatic separation of families. Douglass describes this practice as one of the many cruelties inflicted upon enslaved people, highlighting the dehumanization and disregard for the familial bonds of those held in bondage.
