In the eighteenth and other centuries it was quite normal in Europe to give African children as gifts. The French governor in Senegal, Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers, describes in letters how he selects children for the high nobility in France. 1786: “I am just buying a little African girl of two or three years old to send to Madame the Duchess of Orleans […]. Her eyes are like little stars and her appearance is so soft and calm that I am moved to tears when I think of her. “
Esther Schreuder 