Editing Concubinage (section)

== Concubinage and slavery ==
{{see also|Slavery|Sexual slavery}}

In some context, the institution of concubinage diverged from a free quasi-marital cohabitation to the extent that it was forbidden to a free woman to be involved in a concubinage and the institution was reserved only to slaves. This type of concubinage was practiced in patriarchal cultures throughout history.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2011|p=203}} Many societies automatically freed the concubine after she had a child. Among societies that did not legally require the manumission of concubines, it was usually done anyway.<ref name=Orlando1/> In slave-owning societies, most concubines were slaves, but not all.{{sfn|Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition|2014|p=122}}{{Dubious|"In slave owning societies, most concubines were slaves" |date=September 2020}} The feature of concubinage that made it attractive to certain men was that the concubine was dependent on the man; she could be sold or punished at the master's will.{{sfn|Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition|2014|p=122}} According to Orlando Peterson, slaves taken as concubines would have had a higher level of material comfort than the [[Plantation#Slavery|slaves used in agriculture]] or in mining.<ref>{{cite book |title=Slavery and Social Death |first1=Orlando |last1=Peterson |page=173 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|quote=It should be obvious that if slaves were acquired as secondary wives, concubines, or homosexual lovers, their material comfort (if not their peace of mind) generally would have been better than those acquired to perform agricultural or mining jobs.}}</ref>