On #Juneteenth, we remember and honor the Black mamas who were forced to nurse and raise White babies to the death of their own. We remember the little lives that were so loved and wanted.
“I wish I dried up
I wish every drop of my milk slipped passed those pink lips and nourished the ground
Where the bones lay
Of my babies
Starved while I feed their murderer
I wish I dried up
So the missus babies would dry up too
And be brittle
So I could crumble them to dust
Return them to the ground
Where all children of my bosom lay equal”
– Hess Love
https://slaveryfacts.org/classroom/breastfeeding-master-s-babies-the-wet-nurse-slave
The disturbing history of enslaved mothers forced to breastfeed white babies in the 1600s
http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/66788/7/article%20(1)%20(1).pdf