Marriage During Slavery Even though slaves had no rights, they were still able and encouraged to get married. It benefitted slave owners since married men were less likely to be rebellious and run away, and women would have children that would later become slaves. Starting at the age of thirteen, women were expected to have four or five children by the age of twenty, some slave owners would promise their freedom if they had fifteen children or more. (“Slave Marriages”). Which wasn’t true most of the time, slaveholders just wanted more slaves for the future. Even though slaves were encouraged to marry, most men wouldn’t marry women in their own plantation because they couldn’t bare to see them being mistreated by their owners (“Slave Marriages”).
