CAMERON ROWLAND

Property in the United States is predicated on slavery.2 In tracing the emergence of U.S. property law, K-Sue Park writes that “laws evolved to render land and people the two most significant market commodities during this period.” “Real estate” described the combination of stolen indigenous land and slaves. Enslaved people were components of the land. The land was a prison. The carceral twinning of enslaved people and property produced value. Slaves were simultaneously commodities and assets who were the producers of commodities and assets. Partus sequitur ventrem stipulated that all children of enslaved women would be the property of their owners. Judge James Gholson argued before the Virginia Legislature, “The legal maxim of ’Partus sequitur ventrem’ is coeval with the existence of the right of property itself.”