The relationship between Black people and dogs is a multifaceted one, deeply rooted in history and shaped by a complex combination of cultural, social, and systemic factors. While dogs have been beloved companions in many Black households across the world, it’s important to remember as the U.S. observes National Dog Day that the history of Black people’s interactions with dogs includes a legacy of oppression, fear and resilience.
Black people’s complicated relationship with dogs can be traced back to the era of slavery in the United States. Enslaved Black individuals faced the terrifying reality of dogs being used by slave owners as tools of control and intimidation. Trained as hunting and tracking animals, dogs were employed to track down escaped slaves, creating an atmosphere of constant fear and danger. They were also used as a way to enforce racial hierarchies and to facilitate the extraction and exploitation of black labor.
This legacy of dogs as instruments of oppression can be traced back to the 1520s in certain parts of the Spanish Americas. Charlton W. Yingling, an assistant professor of history at the University of Louisville, detailed the shocking history in the 2021 documentary Mauled: When Police Dogs Attack.
According to Yingling, in South American areas like Santo Domingo and Panama, attack dogs were predominantly used against African-descended populations and captive slaves as a way to maintain fear and order on the plantation.
The grisly control tactic eventually spread to North America in the 1600s.
“When dogs became a key component of expanding racialized slavery in North America, it was really believe it or not during the Seminole Wars in Florida, Yigling explained in the eye-opening documentary. “There were canines purchased specifically for slave tracking that had become quite famous and arguably infamous as well from places like Cuba, from Florida. In the 1840s, these dogs then proliferated across the United…
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