Daguerreotype of an Enslaved Boy Holding a Baby

ca. 1850

Enslaved children began working as early as age five or six.

Enslaved African American children worked in agricultural fields and inside their enslavers’ homes. In the fields, they weeded plants, carried water, and watched cattle. Indoors, they swept, made beds, and looked after babies barely younger than they were. Enslaved children were also playmates to their enslavers’ children, who often grew up to inherit their enslaved former playmates as property from their parents.

In this photograph, an enslaved African American boy holds the young child of his enslaver.