N/S Carpenter's wife message for Richard Sherman

St. Pike said

This is 100% nonsense. To my knowledge castration was only done for crimes of a sexual nature. There were far more brutal ways to control slaves.

I would be interested in the "breeding" comment source(s) as well. I certainly haven't read that in any book or ex-slave interviews that was conducted in the early 20th century.

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It was a South Carolina law that a slave would receive a branded "R" on their cheek after the first attempt to run away, and males would be castrated on any subsequent attempt.

As for breeding purposes, male slaves were inspected sometime around puberty, and underdeveloped males were castrated on the spot. An uncastrated male was expected to in most cases procreate at a specific level. I forget the actual numbers. I'll find some source material on these though.