This text illustrate how social history – in this case the history of the transatlantic slave trade – is transmitted from one generation to the next, through the generations and even today continues to exert a structuring power over the relationship to work of those living in the countries with a legacy of slavery. It argues that what we need to examine is the intermediary link between this history and conduct at work: namely, the relationships between adults and children. Social theories and theories of work often refer to the world of adults, ignoring the fact that prior to becoming adults, citizens and workers were also children. Based on clinical studies it will analyse how the adult-child relationship, the adult’s subjective relationship to work can be transmitted to the child via the fundamental anthropological situation and through ascription, as suggested by Jean Laplanche’s theory of translation.