During enslavement, Black children were frequently hired out or forced to work for the benefit of their enslavers. But why did this continue even after emancipation?
Emancipation had age requirements. The first emancipation law freed enslaved people after the age of 28, leaving many children still in the throes of brutal chattel slavery, even if their parents or guardians were free.
Freedom was even more challenging to achieve for orphans. These “orphans” often still had parents or were kidnapped from their parents and put into apprenticeship systems to educate the children.
However states reneged on promises of literacy, job skills, and safety, and children were forced to work for whites instead. Parents fought fiercely to regain custody of their children. The process was tedious, and often whites countersued to keep the children calling parents “ungrateful” and “liars.”
Today, Black children are more likely to be removed from their homes, incarcerated, and tried as adults. Black children embody the future of our communities. Though centuries have passed, they are still vulnerable to a system that seeks to exploit, oppress, and control them. Our children deserve to be nourished, supported, and protected. How can we reimagine communities and care systems that do just that?