My thesis will trace the literary and historical depictions of slave children, beginning with twentieth-century monographs on slavery and the oral and written slave narratives that historians have utilized in their research. By analyzing varied portrayals of slave children in historical studies, I will explain the flaws in early work by White scholars and trace the responses of African American scholars such as Willie Lee Rose, John Blassingame, and Herbert Gutman. I will execute close readings of two contemporary novels that feature slave children as prominent characters: Ernest Gainess Miss Jane Pittman (1971) and Toni Morrisons Beloved (1987). I will examine the effectiveness of the novelists who imaginatively attempt to fill gaps in the historical scholarship on the subject of slave children. My research focuses on how African American historians and writers have responded to the pervasive apologist rhetoric of slavery.