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

  • Schiebinger, Londa L.
Date:
2017
  • Books

About this work

Description

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.

Publication/Creation

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017.

Physical description

xiii, 234 pages : black and white illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

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.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-222) and index.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    JQC.71.AA7
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781503600171
  • 1503600173
  • 9781503602915
  • 1503602915