slavery and the health of african american slaves african slave trade and the middle passage the...
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Slavery and the Health of African American Slaves
African Slave Trade and The Middle Passage
The Health of Slaves
The Science of Race Healthcare within Slave Communities
Slave Barracoon
Auction Block, Fredericksburg Virginia
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
The Middle Passage
The Key Players
the Portuguese (and Brazilians), the English, The French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the North Americans
West African coastal trading system
African slave traders were the backbone of the trade in Africa
North American Slave Trade
North American Slave Trade abolished in 1808
Written into U.S. Constitution Reinforced by British Act of Parliament
(1807 and 1833) Trade continues within American South
1820-1860 - 2 million sold between states 600,000 wives and husbands separated
Slave Trade Statistics
Between 1492 and 1820 enslaved African migrants outnumbered European migrants 5 to 1
-few 1000 slaves brought to the Americas each year in the century after Columbus’s voyage
-by 1600 – intensive sugar cultivation – 19,000/yr -By 18th century, 60, 000/yr -21 million Africans captured and sold into slavery from 1700 to
1850. -9 million arrived ALIVE in the New World. Others, put # at 12
million.
Slave Mortality
Millions more died either before leaving Africa or on slave ships
Brutality of Barracoons
Mass mortality in Middle Passage
33% of African Slaves die in first year in New World
THE HEALTH OF SLAVES
19th Century American South
Slave Demographics in the U.S. South
By 1750, 90 % of the slaves living in American south By the American Revolution, 80 % of the North
American slave population was African American – only 20% brought in from Africa
After 1808 – abolition of slave trade in U.S. – African population of slaves was tiny
by early 19th century, gender balance in slave population
natural population growth and reduced mortality by 18th century i.e. 1808 and 1860, U.S. slave population more than
tripled – from 1.2 million to 4 million
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Letters of Dr. James Carmichael and son
100 references to sick and injured slaves
Oppressive conditions of slavery
Poor sanitation on plantations, in slave quarters
Infectious diseases, Worms, parasites, etc.
THE SCIENCE OF RACE
Racial Differences in Health
Black Medicine
immunity to some forms of malaria
selective genetic factors possed by 90% of West Africans and 70% of African Americans
Absence of Duffy positive cells = resistant to Plasmodium vivax
high incidence of sickle cell anemia and sickle cell trait helped African Americans build their resistance to malaria.
intolerance to Cold climates
little tolerance or resistance to respiratory infections as compared to whites.
more susceptible to TB, had higher cases of SIDS, and more infants who died from Neonatal tetanus, caused by the infection of the umbilical chord stump
In 1851, Louisiana plantation doctor Samuel Cartwright even came up with a unique psychiatric diagnosis that he called "drapetomania" to explain the trend of slaves running away.
Craniometry
The Bible versus Science
African Americans: Are they racially variant? Or, are they a different species?
Species theory = polygenism Polygenism: human "races" were of
different lineages and suggested a hierarchy outlined in the "Chain of Being" that positioned Africans between man and lower primates.
Monogenism: the belief that all human races descended from a common ancestral type. Consistent with the teachings of the bible
Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, 1751
“And while we are...scouring our planet, by clearing America of woods...why should we...darken its people? Why increase the Sons of Africa, by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawneys, of increasing the lovely white and red?”
Thomas Jefferson
“ I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstance, are inferior to the whites in the endowment both of mind and body.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates
“There is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favour of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
“Negro Equality! Fudge!” Lincoln’s Private scribbling in 1859
American “Race” Scientists
Charles Pickering, Naturalist, Librarian, Curator
Samuel G. Morton, Physician
Louis Agassiz, Naturalist, Palaeontologist, Geologist
Josiah Clark Nott, Ethnographer
Here American physician J. C. Nott attempted to illustrate geologist Louis Agassiz’s theory, which was that each region of the world was populated by separately created sets of species, both animal and human. Such ideas about human species at the time were often influenced by western racial prejudices, as the idea of multiple, separately created races could be used to justify slavery and other forms of subjugation. Darwin disagreed, firmly maintaining that all humans were descended from the same human ancestor. Josiah Clark Nott (1804–1873). Types of Mankind.... Philadelphia: Lippincott and Grambo, 1854.
"Types of Mankind" by Josiah Nott and George Glidden,1854.
Frederick Douglass
Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784
‘On Being Brought From Africa to America’
'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,Taught my benighted soul to understandThat there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:Once I redemption neither sought now knew,Some view our sable race with scornful eye,'Their colour is a diabolic die.‘Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
Phillis Wheatley
Why study the science of race?
Powerful example of how science is shaped by politics and culture and economics
Equally potent illustration of the influence of science on politics, culture, and economics
Race scientists gained prominence in the scientific community by legitimizing and directly contributing to the exploitation of slaves.
SCIENCE IS NOT OBJECTIVE OR NEUTRAL
HEALTHCARE IN SLAVE COMMUNITIES
African American Healing Practices The history of medical abuse and exploitation only a partial account of
the medical history of slavery.
Slaves were not passive victims of medical malice and they were not helpless dependents on white health care.
slave communities had a rich health culture
KEY: African American health concerns were different than the health concerns that white slave owners had for their slaves
White concern with economics and preserving bodies
Slave health concerns focused on quality of life and community issues, as well as protecting individual slaves and slave communities from whites and blacks who wished to cause them harm.
Tensions over Healthcare of Slaves
Whites very suspicious of slave medicine
Slaves very reluctant to submit their bodies to their masters
As a result, constant tension between slaves and whites over health issues
Conclusion