Question/Problem 1: What was life like for slaves in the United States prior to the Civil War?

Breakup of Families

Slaveowners encouraged slaves to have children because they could sell the children or keep them for additional help.

Read the passage found on page 40 of "To Be a Slave", by Julius Lester (New York: The Dial Press, Inc., 1968) which describes how one slave mother reacted to this policy.