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This does not mean those memories should be dismissed.
Oral history is an important source of knowledge, especially for communities whose experiences were excluded from official archives.
Family stories can preserve names, relationships, places, and events that written records overlooked.
But oral traditions and documented facts are not always the same thing.
Numbers can change as stories pass between generations. Different family branches may preserve different versions of events. The distinction between children, grandchildren, and later descendants can become blurred in popular retellings.
For these reasons, the extraordinary number associated with Roque should be presented as a reported claim, rather than an established biological record.
Yet the uncertainty surrounding the precise figure does not diminish the ethical significance of the story.
What matters is the allegation that Roque's reproductive life was deliberately exploited.
The stories suggest that his owner viewed him as a way to increase the number of enslaved people on the estate.
