[Dixie Yooper]

the word "pickaninny" — a derogatory term for black children

Pickaninny is a term that was used for the half back/half white children on plantations. If they happened to be the plantation owner's children, they would most often become house servants.

[wtc911]

If they happened to be the plantation owner's children, they would most often become house servants.

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Do you mean that if the father owned the mother they might become house slaves?

[Monterrosa-24]

"...a term that was used for the half back/half white children..."

Wha...???...Never in the old Southern literature I've read and not in Yankee Webster's dictionary either. I've never heard mulattoes referred to as pickaninnies. It was an endearing term for Black children.