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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Black Children During Slavery

Black Children Were Fed Like Pigs

Babies were often taken care of by very young Black children or very old adults who weren’t able to work much. Because there were often many babies to be fed, they were fed out of troughs.

“Children fed like pigs out of troughs and, being supplied sparingly, invariably fight and quarrel with one another over their meals,” Francis Fredric recalled in documents in The National Archives. The food they were given often lacked protein and other things of nutritional value. The children’s bellies were often plump, which is a typical indicator of malnutrition.

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