Secret cures of slaves : people, plants, and medicine in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world / Londa Schiebinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schiebinger, Londa L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human experimentation in medicine--West Indies--History--18th century.

Human experimentation in medicine.

Enslaved persons--Health and hygiene--West Indies--History--18th century.

Enslaved persons.

Black people--Medicine--West Indies--History--18th century.

Black people.

Traditional medicine--West Indies--History--18th century.

Traditional medicine.

Tropical medicine--West Indies--History--18th century.

Tropical medicine.

Black people--Medicine.

Enslaved persons--Health and hygiene.

History.

West Indies.

Human Experimentation--history.

Enslaved Persons--history.

Black People--history.

Medicine, Traditional--history.

Tropical Medicine--history.

Medical Subjects:

Human Experimentation--history.

Enslaved Persons--history.

Black People--history.

Medicine, Traditional--history.

Tropical Medicine--history.

West Indies.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 234 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

In the natural course of events, humans fall sick and die. The history of medicine bristles with attempts to find new and miraculous remedies, to work with and against nature to restore humans to health and well-being. In this book, Londa Schiebinger examines medicine and human experimentation in the Atlantic World, exploring the circulation of people, disease, plants, and knowledge between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. She traces the development of a colonial medical complex from the 1760s, when a robust experimental culture emerged in the British and French West Indies, to the early 1800s, when debates raged about banning the slave trade and, eventually, slavery itself. Massive mortality among enslaved Africans and European planters, soldiers, and sailors fueled the search for new healing techniques. Amerindian, African, and European knowledges competed to cure diseases emerging from the collision of peoples on newly established, often poorly supplied, plantations. But not all knowledge was equal. Highlighting the violence and fear endemic to colonial struggles, Schiebinger explores aspects of African medicine that were not put to the test, such as Obeah and vodou. This book analyzes how and why specific knowledges were blocked, discredited, or held secret.

Contents:

The rise of scientific medicine

Experiments with the Negro Dr's materia medica

Medical ethics

Exploitive experiments

The colonial crucible : debates over slavery

Conclusion : the circulation of knowledge.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Schiebinger, Londa L. Secret cures of slaves.

ISBN:

9781503600171

1503600173

9781503602915

1503602915

OCLC:

962171969