Lessons From Slavery: Malnutrition and Rickets Stunt Children’s Growth

Here’s an inter­est­ing arti­cle about research that attempt­ed to fig­ure out exact­ly why Black children’s growth was so bad­ly stunt­ed in the 19th cen­tu­ry Unit­ed States. It con­clud­ed that most of the stunt­ing was due to gen­er­al mal­nu­tri­tion. The growth of some dark-skinned chil­dren, espe­cial­ly in the north­ern states, could also have been lim­it­ed by short­ages of vit­a­min D, the sun­shine vit­a­min.