Children in cuffs: Black girlhood in the wake of enslavement in North America

Interdisciplinary approaches to examining temporality in childhood reveal the tensions that surround Western childhood ideals. To reflect the reality of some children, childhoods must be analyzed within the spatial conditions in which childhood is experienced. Using the examples of five Black girls who faced the discrimination of adultification bias, I examine the elusive notions of protection, innocence, and being and becoming for Black children. Drawing on theoretical framing of Black geographies, to underpin the examination of Blackness and being, this article explores childhood experiences of Black girls in North America and their contemporary link to enslavement.