User:Andrewa/Concubinage within slavery

Concubinage has existed in most parts of the world and often involves a relationship of a wealthy man with a socially inferior woman. Concubinage is an alternative to marriage, often entered into when social circumstances would prohibit legal marriage. Most concubines were slaves, but not all. The feature about 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.

In places like China and the Muslim world, the concubine of a king could achieve power, especially if her son also became a monarch.

Many societies automatically freed the concubine after she had a child. According to one study, this was the case in about one-third of slave-holding societies, the most prominent being case of the Muslim world. Among societies that did not legally require the manumission of concubines, it was usually done anyway.