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{{Short description|Pidgin term for child, also a racial slur}}
{{Redirect-distinguish-for|Picaninny|Picatinny|other uses|Pickaninny (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Six Little Pickaninnies postcard 1902 Detroit Pub Co via NYPL Digital Collections.jpg|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 [[pidgin]] word for a small [[child]], possibly derived from the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|pequenino}} ('boy, child, very small, tiny').<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary online |title=pickaninny |edition=draft revision |date=March 2010 |quote=Probably < a form in an {{sic}} Portuguese-based pidgin < Portuguese {{lang|pt|pequenino}} boy, child, use as noun of {{lang|pt|pequenino}} very small, tiny (14th cent.; earlier as ''pequeninno'' (13th cent.))...}}</ref> It has been used as a [[racial slur]] for [[African American]] children and a [[pejorative]] term for Aboriginal children of the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. It can also refer to a derogatory [[caricature]] of a [[dark-skinned]] child of [[Ethnic groups of Africa|African]] descent.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==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 depicting eight [[Afro–Puerto Ricans|black]] children, titled "Eight Little Pickaninnies Kneeling in a row, Puerto Rico", published in 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 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 was apparently used in the seventeenth century by [[Slavery in the West Indies|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}}</ref> ''Pickaninny'' 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.{{r|Bernstein p34}}

===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 language]]s of the Caribbean, especially those which are English-based.<ref name="WordReference">{{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",{{cn|date=July 2023}} while in the English-based national creole language of [[Suriname]], [[Sranan Tongo|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|In Papua New Guinea, {{lang|tpi|pikinini}} is the word for 'child'. Here local children are seen at {{lang|tpi|Buk bilong Pikinini}} ('Books for Children') in [[Port Moresby]], an independent [[not-for-profit organization]].]]

The term {{lang|tpi|pikinini}} is found in [[Melanesia]]n pidgin and [[creole language]]s 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}} For example, [[Charles III]] used the term in a speech he gave in Tok Pisin during a formal event: he described himself as {{lang|tpi|nambawan pikinini bilong Misis Kwin}} (i.e. the first child of the Queen).<ref name="Prince of Wales Visits">{{cite news |author=<!--staff authors--> |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9654071/Prince-of-Wales-nambawan-pikinini-visits-Papua-New-Guinea.html |title=Prince of Wales, 'nambawan pikinini', visits Papua New Guinea |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=4 November 2012 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In [[Nigerian Pidgin|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 [[Igbo highlife|highlife]] song "[[Sweet Mother]]";<ref>[[Prince Nico Mbarga|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 [[krio language|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}}</ref> the term {{lang|kri|pikin}} refers to 'child' or 'children', while in [[Liberian English]] the term ''pekin'' does likewise.  In [[Chilapalapa]], a pidgin language used in Southern Africa, the term used is {{lang|fng|pikanin}}. In [[Sranan Tongo]] and [[Ndyuka language|Ndyuka]] of [[Suriname]] the term {{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 tin sign from 1922 advertising Picaninny Freeze, a frozen treat]]

In the [[Southern United States]], ''pickaninny'' was long used to refer to the children of African slaves or (later) of any dark-skinned African American.<ref>{{oed | pickaninny}}</ref> The term is now generally considered offensive in the U.S.{{r|Hughes 2015|Herbst 1997}}

The character of Topsy in [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s 1852 anti-slavery novel ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' became the basis for the popular caricature of the pickaninny, described by scholar Debbie Olson as "a [[Coon (slur)|coon]] character [...] untamed, genderless, with wide eyes, hair sticking up all around the child's head, and often 'stuffing their wide mouths with [[Watermelon and fried chicken|watermelon or chicken]]{{' "}}.<ref name="Olson p83">{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Debbie |title=Black Children in Hollywood Cinema |date=2017 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham, Switzerland |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> These characters were a popular feature of [[minstrel show]]s into the twentieth century.{{r|Herbst 1997}} According to historian Robin Bernstein: 

{{blockquote |The pickaninny was an imagined, subhuman black juvenile who was typically depicted outdoors, merrily accepting (or even inviting) violence [...] Characteristics of the pickaninny include dark or sometimes jet-black skin, exaggerated eyes and mouth, the action of gorging (especially on watermelon), and the state of being threatened or attacked by animals (especially alligators, geese, dogs, pigs, or tigers). Pickaninnies often wear ragged clothes (which suggest parental neglect) and are sometimes partially or fully naked [...] the figure is always juvenile, always of color, and always resistant if not immune to pain.{{r|Bernstein p34}} }}

During the [[American Civil War]], according to a biography of [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] General [[Benjamin Butler]], when New Orleans, under General Butler, was subject to [[martial law]], "More and more New Orleans families who had stood high in the social life of the city suffered not only loss of property but the humiliation of seeing their ex-servants diaper pickaninnies in their heirloom laces".<ref>West, Jr., Richard S., ''Lincoln's Scapegoat General: A Life of Benjamin Butler, 1818-1893'', Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965, p. 156.</ref>

Journalist [[H. L. Mencken]] (born 1880) wrote that "in the [[Baltimore]] of my youth, ''pickaninny'' was not used invidiously, but rather affectionately."<ref name="Mencken 1945">{{cite book |last1=Mencken |first1=Henry Louis |title=The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States |date=1945 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-40076-1 |page=635}}</ref>

=== 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}}</ref> It was used in colonial Australia and is still in use in some [[Australian Kriol language|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 Conservation Park|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 [[Gabon]]ese women known as "Nura, Piccaninni, Jumbo Jack and Prince Quarben".<ref>''The Times'', 25 October 1826; Issue 13100; p. 3; col A, 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") by the British Conservative politician [[Enoch Powell]] in his 1968 "[[Rivers of Blood speech|Rivers of Blood]]" speech.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} In a 2002 column for ''The Daily Telegraph'', [[Boris Johnson]] wrote, "It is said that [[Elizabeth II|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' [[Duster (clothing)|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=December 2, 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 (novel)|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 (TV 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=October 4, 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|Alligator bait}}
* {{anl|Golliwog}}
* {{anl|Hottentot (racial term)}}
* {{anl|Nadir of American race relations}}
* {{anl|The Story of Little Black Sambo|''The Story of Little Black Sambo''}}
* {{anl|Tar-Baby}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Piccaninny |short=x}}
* {{cite web |title=The Picaninny Caricature |last=Pilgrim |first=David |date=October 2000 |publisher=Ferris State University |location=Big Rapids, Mich. |website=Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia |url=https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/picaninny/homepage.htm}}

==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}}

[[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 Americans]]
[[Category:History of childhood]]