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