A Critical Inquiry of Enslaved African Females and the Antebellum Hospital Experience

Abstract

There are a multitude of challenges within the academic study of the enslavement of African people, including the varying analyses regarding the extent and quality of medical care provided to these persons. Many of the New Orleans slave narratives detail how enslaved Africans received little in the way of formal medical care and treatment (Clayton, 1990). Other interpretations of antebellum history insist that slaves routinely received medical care from arrangements made or, in some cases administered, by the slave owner (Breeden, 1980). Furthermore, because enslaved Africans in Louisiana were subject to the laws governing consumer protection, and so on, slaveholders (owners, traders, or dealers) were required to guarantee them against disease and illness (Schafer, 1987a). However, there is evidence as well that enslaved Africans in the diaspora participated as skilled practitioners of medical care (Bankole, 1998b; Finch, 1990; Goodson, 1987; Harrison, 19751976). What is certain is that the field of medicine during the antebellum period was growing from rudimentary conceptions of the causes of illness (including the use of folk practices and a plethora of quack-physicians) to an organized health care service delivery system with trained and licensed physicians. Both Blacks and Whites during this period were at the same time victims of a burgeoning medical field and recipients of aggressive strategies to pro-