Summary: The Horrors Of Medical Care For Slaves

Antebellum south had many issues, but one of the most pervasive of the time was the wide spread of disease and insufficient medical treatments. During that time the most widespread diseases included yellow fever, cholera, smallpox and malaria these diseases had almost a sixty percent mortality rate (“Antebellum Louisiana 1: Disease, Death and Mourning” ). Although medical advances and science were minimal there were attempts and different practices in attempt to heal the sick. Methods of treatment included different techniques, some dabbled with herbs, others bleed and other yet relied on ancestor and religious spirits. Slave owners did not seek physician treatment for slaves unusually it was dire thus leading to the slave community taking

Through this evolution, these pieces show the reader the concrete was that groups assured control through different methods of asserting authority. Since Starr wrote both of his chapters the evidence for how physicians finessed the healthcare system to their benefit through the use of authority is straightforward since he developed the language that is being used. However, when looking at Gambles chapter the evidence isn’t as clear. When looking at the creation of both the Providence Hospital and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital both Dr. Williams and Dr. Mossell employed tactics to increased their authority over desired parties. As a starting point, both men used their limited societal authority at the time to further their education and become physicians (Gamble 16,20).

In the Antebellum South, physician practices were often questioned for their veracity, and were frequently disregarded by both the slave owners and slaves themselves. Therefore, slaves and masters typically received medical care from the herb and root doctors living within the plantation’s boundaries. These specialty doctors were normal slaves, however, they had intimate knowledge of roots and herbs that helped cure certain diseases. Along with their practices being less painful than the cupping, leeching, lancing, and mercuralizing that a typical physician would perform, root and herb doctors were the primary medical practitioner to consult for an illness (Kiple 1-2). The incapability to trust physician’s practices forced slaves to deal with

This class focuses on offenses that have occurred nationwide, leaving a long lasting negative impact on the world. This class has been discussing who is to be collectively held accountable for wrongdoings in society and the kinds of reparations done to right these wrongs. The discussion of the medical crimes committed during the Holocaust done by the Germans was an enthralling part of the discussion, and it was interesting to see how the Nazis were held accountable and how they took accountability for their actions. Americans, on the contrary, have committed their fair share of medical scandals, and have done little to accept responsibility. This essay looks at Eugenics, The Tuskegee Experiment, and the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study and the prejudice used against minority groups.

Through the perpetuating institutionalized and structure racism, Harriet A. Washington goes to explain the reason why African Americans continues to mistrust the healthcare system and its professionals. The book Medical Apartheid, reveals the dark history of medical experiments on African Americans from colonial times to the present. Washington verifies some of her research by introducing Eugenics,

Life under slavery was harsh, and during the mid-1800s, it was the main way of living in the South. Unlike the North, the South had very few industries, but made up for this with plantations. They then gained wealth by using slavery as they pleased, but under slavery, African- Americans were treated brutally. Under this kind of treatment, slaves made many ways to endure this pain and even sometimes then rebel.

Ophelia Settle Egypt, informally known as Ophie, was an African American woman ahead of her time. She attained the educational status of less than one percent of the American population, was liberal and accepting of others despite the criticism around her, fought to end racism, worked independently of her husband, and believed in limiting family growth. All of Egypt’s beliefs and lifetime achievements represent a new type of woman: a woman who refuses to assimilate to her gender stereotype of weak, inferior, and domestic. Egypt dedicated her life to social work through various activities. She worked as a sociologist, researcher, teacher, director of organizations, and social worker at different times in her life. Egypt’s book, The Unwritten History of Slavery (1968), and the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Southeast Washington D.C. named after her represent Egypt’s legacy and how one person is capable of social change.

During the Civil War, slaves within the Confederacy, had to go through many challenges to survive. One of their challenges included finding the health care they needed to survive the harsh conditions of labor. They suffered from poor sanitation resulting to infections in open wounds and different types of diseases such as smallpox, measles, influenza and more, all depending on where their plantation was settled. Seeking health care was very hard because they were slaves. Some were left with very little options or no options at all. Most of the slaves either depended on their master for healthcare, try to escape the slave owning states to the Union/ the North, or volunteer to be enlisted for the war.

Slavery was a system of forced labor popular in the 17th and 18th century that exploited and oppressed blacks. Slavery was an issue in the US that brought on many complex responses. Slave labor introduced to the United States a multitude of issues that questioned political, economical, and social morals. As slave labor increased due to the booming of cottage industries with the market revolution, reactions to these issues differed between regions, creating a sectional split of the United States between industrial North and plantation South. Historiographers Kenneth Stampp, Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, and Eugene Genovese, in their respective articles, attempt to interpret the attitudes of American slaves toward their experiences of work as well as the social and economic implications of slave labor.

When black slavery first started in the United States, all the slaves were being imported from Africa. Slowly overtime slaves were being born in the United States instead of solely being brought from Africa. The birth rate of the slaves was not high enough to depend on the reproduction of slaves in the south though. This resulted in a combination of both American-born slaves and African-born slaves on plantations. Eventually, there was a division between the two groups of slaves in the Southern part of the United States.

There were doctors in Colonial America. When a doctor visits a patient to check upon the sick person's health, their pay will be in anything but money such as chopped woods, vegetables, et cetera for the poor people. The poor people did not have money as stated in A Visit to a Colonial Times Doctor’s Office. They usually rely on their farming to feed their families and things such as money were scarce. Those who are of the contrary to the low income and the rural settings have better access to health and opportunities as written in Colonial Medicine (5). They can pay their doctor on the spot and can even request their choice of doctors. In modern America, a new change to the health care business is arriving. With the currently new healthcare, everyone shall be able to hopefully

“The Horrors of a Slave Ship,” describes in detail, the tragic experiences of Olaudah Equiano as a captive slave. Equiano suffered many sleepless nights; he was flogged and kidnapped multiple times. In the article, the author is trying to give the reader the feeling by giving details of the brutally floggings and desperation as many slaves suffocated to death as they were placed in an overcrowded deck. Overall, the author tries to give readers their point across of the difficulties in being a captive slave.

The daily life of a slave in North Carolina was incredibly difficult. Hard workers, especially those in the field, played from sunrise until sundown. Even small kids and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours. Slaves were generally granted a day off on Sunday, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July.

The ill temper of slaves could come from the separation of family, including if it’s a mother to her children. When thinking of separation from family, a great example would be right in a local mall. A common shopping area, when all the sudden the crowd gets massive and separation happens between two people. The separation between mother and daughter or even a grandmother getting stuck in the bathroom after dining in a Chili's. The same concept applies with slavery, leaving Africa and getting on an overcrowded ship, hoping to survive being a sardine for a couple months. Then being brought onto a stage with your family in front of dozen's of white men, to be auctioned off and sold individually to a different plantation. Fredrick even dealt

If a physician was called, death was inevitable (42). My grandmother wholeheartedly disagrees with Abel’s ideas. She trusted her doctor literally with her life. Emily Abel emphasizes that doctors proved to remain unreliable and costly. She illustrates the difficulties of summoning a physician; “transportation difficulties not only delayed doctors’ arrivals but also prevented them from providing continuing care” (41). My grandmother lived in a different kind of situation. The town she resided in consisted of almost all relatives; where as in Abel’s stories, the doctor most likely would be required to travel long distances to provide care. Transportation served as a significant challenge that prevented care from being rendered in a timely fashion, especially if major trauma or an acute sudden onset condition was involved. My grandmother did not experience this obstacle. My grandmother explained, “[T]he doctor's office had registered nurses and a few rooms available for more care, if needed, for twenty four hours a day.” In other words, help was almost always available. The local doctor’s instrumental value benefitted the surrounding community. This local resource came in handy with her multiple children.