Does Islam have heraditary slavery?

Question

With hereditary slavery, babies given birth by slave women are considered as slaves whose owner is the master of slave women. Does such a thing exist in Islam?

In brief, if a slave women has been impregnated, either by her master or perhaps by someone else, is the newborn considered as slave, hence a property of the slave women's master, or a free person?

Answer 1

A man can have sexual relations with a slave by the following means:

• By being the owner of the slave. Any child born this way is free and is equal to a child born through marriage.

• By being married to a slave who is not owned by him. A child born through such means follows the status of the mother, i.e. is a slave. However it is possible for the husband to negotiate that the child shall be free. See Which conditions scholars have defined in case of a marriage between a free and a slave spouse?

Reference:

أن الولد يتبع أمه في الحرية، فإذا كانت الأم حرة كان ولدها حرا، وإن كانت أمة كان ولدها رقيقا، وهذا مما لا خلاف فيه بين الفقهاء. ويستثنى من ذلك ما لو كان التولد من سيد الأمة، إذ يولد حرا وينعقد لأمه سبب الحرية، فتصبح حرة بموت سيدها

A child follows her mother in freedom. If the mother is free then her child will be free and if she is a slave then her child will be a slave, and in this there is no difference between the jurists.

And an exception to this is the child born from the master of the slave-woman, for it will be born free and will become a cause for the freedom of its mother, for she shall be free after the death of her master.

^{— Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence}