For the most part, slaves' diet consisted of a form of fatty pork and corn or rice. Some portray slaves as having plenty to eat, while others portray "the fare of the plantation coarse and scanty". There are contrasting views on slave's diets and access to food. Ĭonsidered today to be abuse based on pseudo-science, two alleged mental illnesses of negros were described in scientific literature: drapetomania, the mental illness that made slaves desire to run away, and dysaesthesia aethiopica, laziness or "rascality". Improper nutrition, the unsanitary living conditions, and excessive labor made them more susceptible to diseases than their owners the death rates among the slaves were significantly higher due to diseases. While working on plantations in the Southern United States, many slaves faced serious health problems. Diseases that were thought to be "negro diseases" included, but were not limited to: Diseases among slaves Įuropean physicians in the West Indies frequently shared their knowledge of black-related diseases with North American colleagues. Mortality statistics for Whites were calculated from census data statistics for slaves were based on small sample-sizes. The life expectancy in 1850 of a White person in the United States was forty for a slave, it was twenty-two. Those who could not work or reproduce because of illness or age were sometimes abandoned by their owners, expelled from plantations, and left to fend for themselves.Ī broad and common measure of the health of a population is its life expectancy. It was to the economic advantage of owners to keep their working slaves healthy, and those of reproductive age reproducing. Slavery had associated with it the health problems commonly associated with poverty. The health of slaves on American plantations was a matter of concern to both slaves and their owners. See also: Treatment of slaves in the United States
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