I'm reading Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, the premise of which is a black woman keeps getting pulled back in time to save her slave owning ancestor's life. The cruelty in this book brought up questions that went unanswered in high school. How did american slaveholders justify enslaving their children they had by slaves? How did they justify selling them? Did slaveowners intentionally breed their own children specifically to sell? How did the abolitionists address this?

Thank you.