{{Short description|Pidgin term for child, also a racial slur}} {{Redirect-distinguish-for|Picaninny|Picatinny|other uses|Pickaninny (disambiguation)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{italic title}} thumb|alt=Postcard depicting a group of African-American children of varying ages, standing barefoot in front of a low wall with foliage visible behind it, all looking away from the camera to the left; the oldest child holds an infant on her hip|Postcard titled "Six Little Pickaninnies" (Detroit Publishing, 1902)
'''''Pickaninny''''' (also '''''picaninny''''', '''''piccaninny''''' or '''''pickininnie''''') is a racial slur for black children and a pejorative term for aboriginal children of the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. The origins of the term are disputed. Along with several words for children in pidgin and creole languages, such as ''piccanin'' and ''pikinini'', it may derive from the Portuguese {{lang|pt|pequenino}} ('boy, child, very small, tiny').{{r|OED Online}}
In the United States, the pickaninny is a derogatory caricature of a dark-skinned African-American child, often depicted with unkempt hair, bulging eyes, and large red lips.{{r|Olson p83}} Such characters were a popular feature of minstrel shows into the twentieth century.{{r|Herbst 1997}}
==Origins and usage== [[File:1902 - 1903 postcard depicting eight black children with a palm tree in Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Postcard photograph of eight black children kneeling against a felled palm tree in a tropical forest|Postcard from Puerto Rico titled "Eight Little Pickaninnies Kneeling in a Row", 1902 or 1903]]
The origins of the word ''pickaninny'' (and its alternative spellings ''picaninny'' and ''piccaninny'') are disputed; it may derive from the Portuguese term for a small child, {{lang|pt|pequenino}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Conor |first1=Liz |title=The 'Piccaninny': racialized childhood, disinheritance, acquisition and child beauty |journal=Postcolonial Studies |date=March 2012 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=45–68 |doi=10.1080/13688790.2012.658742}}</ref><ref name="Room 1986">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Room |first=Adrian |title=A Dictionary of True Etymologies |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul Inc. |year=1986 |page=130 |isbn=978-0-415-03060-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoftrue0000adri/page/130/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term evidently spread through trade networks using Portuguese-based pidgins during the 17th century, especially the Atlantic slave trade.<ref name="OED Online">{{cite OED |term=piccaninny |id=8795776999 |access-date=21 April 2025 |quote=A black child. (Now considered offensive when used by a white person of a black child.)}}</ref> Other spellings include ''piccanini'', ''pickoninnie'', ''pick-ny'', ''piccanin'', and ''picannin''.<ref name="Mencken 1945">{{cite book |last=Mencken |first=Henry Louis |author-link=H. L. Mencken |title=Supplement One: The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States |date=1960 |orig-year=originally published 1945 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-40076-1 |page=635 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanlangu00menc/page/635/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref>
''Pickaninny'' was apparently used by slaves in the West Indies to affectionately refer to a child of any race.<ref name="Herbst 1997">{{cite book |last1=Herbst |first1=Philip |title=The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States |date=1997 |publisher=Intercultural Press |location=Yarmouth, Maine |isbn=978-1-877864-42-1 |pages=178–179 |url=https://archive.org/details/colorofwordsency0000herb/page/178/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> The term acquired a pejorative connotation by the nineteenth century as a term for black children in the United States, as well as aboriginal children of the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand.<ref name="Bernstein p34">{{cite book |first=Robin |last=Bernstein |title=Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights |publisher=New York University Press |year=2011 |pages=34–35 |isbn=978-0-8147-8709-0 |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814787090.003.0005 |chapter=Tender Angels, Insensate Pickaninnies: The Divergent Paths of Racial Innocence}}</ref> It is now generally considered offensive.{{r|OED Online|Hughes 2015|Herbst 1997}}
===Similar terms in Pidgin and Creole languages=== The term ''piccanin'', derived from the Portuguese {{lang|pt|pequenino}}, has along with several variants become widely used in pidgin languages, meaning 'small'.<ref name="Hughes 2015">{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Geoffrey |title=An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World |date=2015 |orig-year=first published 2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |page=345 |isbn=978-1-317-47678-8}}</ref> This term is common in the creole languages of the Caribbean, especially those which are English-based.<ref name="WordReference.com">{{cite web |title=Pickaninny |website=WordReference.com Dictionary of English |url=https://www.wordreference.com/definition/Pickaninny |access-date=31 December 2022}}</ref> In Jamaican Patois, the word is found as {{lang|jam|pickney}}, which is used to describe a child regardless of racial origin.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pickney {{!}} Patois Definition on Jamaican Patwah |url=https://jamaicanpatwah.com/term/Pickney/1063 |website=Jamaican Patwah |access-date=8 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The same word is used in Antiguan and Barbudan Creole to mean "children", <ref>{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Joy |title=The Way We Talk and other Antigua & Barbudan Folkways |isbn=978-9769520240}}</ref> while in the English-based national creole language of Suriname, Sranang Tongo, {{lang|pt|pequeno}} has been borrowed as {{lang|srn|pikin}} for 'small' and 'child'.<ref>{{Cite book |url= |title=Surviving the Middle Passage: The West Africa–Surinam Sprachbund |last1=Muysken |first1=Pieter C. |last2=Smith |first2=Norval |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co |year=2014 |isbn=978-3-11-034385-4 |pages=228}}</ref>
[[File:Children at Buk bilong Pikinini (books for children). Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. (10682223463).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Group of children sitting in a circle, holding picture books and smiling up at the camera|Local children at {{lang|tpi|Buk bilong Pikinini}} ('Books for Children'), a nonprofit organization in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2013]]
The term {{lang|tpi|pikinini}} is found in Melanesian pidgin and creole languages such as Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea or Bislama of Vanuatu, as the usual word for 'child' (of a person or animal);<ref name="Crowley 2003">{{cite book |last1=Crowley |first1=Terry |author1-link=Terry Crowley (linguist) |title=A New Bislama Dictionary |date=2003 |publisher=Institute of Pacific Studies |location=Suva, Fiji |isbn=978-9-8202-0362-4 |page=205 |edition=2nd}}</ref> it may refer to children of any race.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} Charles III used the term in a speech during a 2012 visit to Papua New Guinea. Speaking in Tok Pisin, Charles (then Prince of Wales) described himself as "{{lang|tpi|nambawan pikinini bilong Misis Kwin}}" ('number one child belonging to Mrs. Queen').<ref name="Furness 2025">{{cite news |last=Furness |first=Hannah |date=19 September 2025 |title=King speaks pidgin in message to Papua New Guinea |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/09/19/king-speaks-pidgin-papua-new-guinea/ |work=The Telegraph |location=London |access-date=22 December 2025 |id={{proquest|3252295038}} |issn=0307-1235 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Prince of Wales Visits">{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Victoria |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9654071/Prince-of-Wales-nambawan-pikinini-visits-Papua-New-Guinea.html |title=Papua New Guinea greets Nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin (or the Prince of Wales to you) |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=5 November 2012 |url-access=subscription |id={{proquest|1125838760}} |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
In Nigerian as well as Cameroonian Pidgin English, the word {{lang|wes|pikin}} is used to mean a child.<ref>{{cite book |last=Faraclas |first=Nicholas G. |title=Nigerian Pidgin |page=45 |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=0-415-02291-6 |url=}}</ref> It can be heard in songs by African popular musicians such as Fela Kuti's Afrobeat song "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" and Prince Nico Mbarga's highlife song "Sweet Mother";<ref>Mbarga, Prince Nico & Rocafil Jazz (1976) ''Sweet Mother'' (lp) Rounder Records #5007 (38194)</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=March 2023}} both are from Nigeria. In Sierra Leone Krio<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Cassidy |editor-first1=Frederic Gomes |editor2=Le Page, Robert Brock |title=Dictionary of Jamaican English |page=502 |edition=2nd |location=Kingston, Jamaica |publisher=University of the West Indies Press |year=2002 |isbn=976-640-127-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofjama0000cass/page/502/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> the term {{lang|kri|pikin}} refers to 'child' or 'children', while in Liberian English ''pekin'' does likewise. In Chilapalapa, a pidgin language used in Southern Africa, the term used is {{lang|fng|pikanin}}. In Sranan Tongo and Ndyuka of Suriname, {{lang|djk|pikin}} may refer to 'children' as well as to 'small' or 'little'. Some of these words may be more directly related to the Portuguese {{lang|pt|pequeno}} than to {{lang|pt|pequenino}}.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
===United States=== [[File:Picaninny Freeze.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Cartoon of a small, naked, jet-black grinning child silhouetted against a full moon with exaggerated eyes and lips, holding a large frosty watermelon slice; text reads, "Eat Seeds 'n All! Piccaninny Freeze: 5¢: A Pal for Your Palate"|Reproduction of a 1922 advertisement for the frozen treat Picaninny Freeze, later used in the 2000 film ''Bamboozled'']]
The first famous depiction of a pickaninny was the character of Topsy in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 anti-slavery novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', presented as a neglected girl, poorly dressed and behaved, untamable and corrupted by slavery.{{r|Pilgrim 2000}} The pickaninny became the dominant racial caricature of black children in the United States, and typically depicted untamed, genderless children with unkempt hair, bulging eyes, large mouths, and red lips, often stuffing their mouths with watermelon or fried chicken.<ref name="Olson p83">{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Debbie |title=Black Children in Hollywood Cinema |date=2017 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham |isbn=978-3-319-48273-6 |page=83 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-48273-6_3 |chapter=African American Girls in Hollywood Cinema}}</ref><ref name="Pilgrim 2000">{{cite web |title=The Picaninny Caricature |last=Pilgrim |first=David |date=October 2000 |publisher=Jim Crow Museum; Ferris State University |location=Big Rapids, Mich. |url=https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/antiblack/picaninny/homepage.htm |access-date=11 September 2025}}</ref>
These characters were a popular feature of minstrel shows into the twentieth century.{{r|Herbst 1997}} Black children were often depicted as being threatened or attacked by animals, and resistant or immune to pain.{{r|Bernstein p34}} They were often seen on postcards and other ephemera being chased or eaten by alligators.{{r|Pilgrim 2000}}
=== Commonwealth countries === ''Piccaninny'' is considered an offensive term for an Aboriginal Australian child.<ref name="Partridge 2006">{{cite book |last=Partridge |first=Eric |editor1=Dalzell, Tom |editor2=Victor, Terry |year=2006 |title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Volume II: J–Z |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-25938-5 |page=1473 |url=https://archive.org/details/newpartridgedict00tomd/page/1473/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}</ref> It was used in colonial Australia and is still in use in some Indigenous Kriol languages.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/aboriginal_breastplates/honours_for_the_last_of_the_tribe/ |title=Last of the Tribe |publisher=National Museum of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meakens |first1=Felicity |title=Language contact varieties |journal=In Harold Koch & Rachel Nordlinger (Eds.), the Languages and Linguistics of Australia: A Comprehensive Guide. Berlin: Mouton. Pp. 365-416 |date=2014 |page=367 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5496549 |access-date=28 March 2016}}</ref> ''Piccaninny'' (sometimes spelled ''picanninnie'') is found in numerous Australian place names, such as Piccaninnie Ponds and Piccaninny Lake<ref name="Piccaninny Lagoon">{{cite web |title=Piccaninny Lagoon, Lake |url=http://location.sa.gov.au/viewer/?map=roads&x=140.75728&y=-34.16201&z=16&uids=19,105&pinx=140.757280&piny=-34.162010&pinTitle=Location&pinText=Piccaninny+Lagoon,+Lake |website=Location SA Map Viewer |publisher=Government of South Australia |access-date=17 January 2019}}</ref> in South Australia, Piccaninny crater and Picaninny Creek in Western Australia and Picaninny Point in Tasmania.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/06/23/2606068.htm |title=The Picaninny Point Debacle |last=Maiden |first=Siobhan |access-date=24 December 2022 |publisher=ABC Australia |date=23 June 2009}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=December 2022|reason=source does not mention origin or use of term itself}}
The term was used in 1831 in an anti-slavery tract "The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, related by herself" published in Edinburgh, Scotland.<ref>[https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/prince/prince.html ''Documenting the American South'']</ref> In 1826 an Englishman named Thomas Young was tried at the Old Bailey in London on a charge of enslaving and selling four Gabonese women known as "Nura, Piccaninni, Jumbo Jack and Prince Quarben".<ref>''The Times'', 25 October 1826; Issue 13100; p. 3; col A, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-admiralty-sessions-old-bailey/170871865/ Admiralty Sessions, Old Bailey, 24 October].</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=December 2022}} ''The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' says that in the United Kingdom today, ''piccaninny'' is considered highly offensive and derogatory, or negative and judgemental when used by other black people.{{r|Partridge 2006}} It was controversially used ("wide-grinning picaninnies") in a letter quoted by the British Conservative politician Enoch Powell in his 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} In a 2002 column for ''The Daily Telegraph'', Boris Johnson wrote, "It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."<ref name="Brown 2021">{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Alexander |title=An Ethics of Political Communication |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-0004-4122-2 |doi=10.4324/9781003207832-3 |chapter=Stonewalling |pages=92–131 |s2cid=242520414}}</ref><ref name="Bowcott 2008">{{cite news |last1=Bowcott |first1=Owen |last2=Jones |first2=Sam |title=Johnson's 'piccaninnies' apology |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/23/london.race |work=The Guardian |date=23 January 2008}}</ref><ref name="Johnson 2002">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/01/10/do1002.xml |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |author=Johnson, Boris |date=10 January 2002 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620103008/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/01/10/do1002.xml |archive-date=20 June 2008 |title=If Blair's so good at running the Congo, let him stay there}}</ref>
==In popular culture== {{In popular culture|section|date=December 2022}} [[File:Piccaninny Rag 1898.jpg|thumb|"Shake Yo' Dusters, or, Piccaninny Rag", sheet music of an 1898 song by William Krell.]] [[File:"Hal Roach presents Sunshine Sammy in The Pickaninny" (1921).jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for the comedy short film ''The Pickaninny'' (1921) with Ernie Morrison aka "Sunshine Sammy."]]
===Literature=== * '''1911'''{{dash}}In the novel ''Peter and Wendy'' by J. M. Barrie, the Indians of Neverland are members of the Piccaninny tribe. Writer Sarah Laskow describes them as "a blanket stand-in for 'others' of all stripes, from Aboriginal populations in Australia to descendants of slaves in the United States" who generally communicate in pidgin with lines such as "Ugh, ugh, wah!".<ref name="Laskow 2014">{{cite web |last1=Laskow |first1=Sarah |date=2 December 2014 |title=The Racist History of Peter Pan's Indian Tribe |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/racist-history-peter-pan-indian-tribe-180953500/ |website=Smithsonian |access-date=20 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref> * '''1936'''{{dash}}In Margaret Mitchell's best-selling epic ''Gone with the Wind'', the character Melanie Wilkes objects to her husband's intended move to New York City because it would mean that their son Beau would be educated alongside "Yankees" and "pickaninnies".<ref>{{cite web |title=Gone with the Wind |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200161.txt |website=Gutenberg.net.au |publisher=Project Gutenberg |access-date=22 March 2020}}</ref>
===Television=== * '''2015'''{{dash}}Season 1 Episode 14 of ''Shark Tank Australia'' featured Piccaninny Tiny Tots which has since changed its name to Kakadu Tiny Tots.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} * '''2020'''{{dash}}Episode 8 (''Jig-A-Bobo'') of the HBO television series ''Lovecraft Country'' features a character chased by ''Topsy'' and ''Bopsy'', two ghoulish monsters depicted as "pickaninny" caricatures.<ref name="Hill 2020">{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Nicole |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/lovecraft-country-topsy-bopsy-uncle-toms-cabin-racist-caricatures/ |title=How Lovecraft Country Uses Topsy and Bopsy to Address Racist Caricatures |date=7 October 2020 |website=Den of Geek}}</ref><ref name="Smail 2020">{{Cite web |last=Smail |first=Gretchen |date=4 October 2020 |url=https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/lovecraft-country-episode-8-twins-girls-history-explained |title=The Real History Behind The Terrifying Girls Haunting Dee On 'Lovecraft Country' |website=Bustle}}</ref>
==See also== * {{anl|Nadir of American race relations}} * {{anl|The Story of Little Black Sambo|''The Story of Little Black Sambo''}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Piccaninny |short=x}}
==External links== * {{wiktionary-inline}} * {{Commons category inline}} * [https://ds-omeka.haverford.edu/materiality-and-spectacle-2015/exhibits/show/trade_cards_and_race/racism Online exhibit of stereotypical portrayals of African Americans], Haverford College
{{Ethnic slurs}} {{African American caricatures and stereotypes|state=uncollapsed}}
Category:Anti-African and anti-black slurs Category:Fictional African-American people Category:Portuguese words and phrases Category:Black people in art Category:Stereotypes of African-American people Category:History of childhood