Katherine Bankole-Medina Ph. D. - Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana

Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana

Katherine Bankole-Medina

To my great-grandparents Annie and Frank Rosebud, formerly enslaved, who lived to know freedom; to Anarcha and all of the Africans who learned to endure, survive and ultimately break free from the labyrinth of the Holocaust of Enslavement; the ancestors who guided this work; my daughter, Zamaniya Baderinwa Bankole; and especially to Virginia Lee Rosebud Garner, Ruby Bell Garner Allen, Todd Greathouse Allen, Sr., and Thunder Mountain who cared about it all.

In the many years since I researched and wrote the first edition of Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana, many new and exciting developments have occurred in the area within the disciplines of history and Black Studies. The academic field of slavery and medicine solidified, and various historians and Africana Studies scholars pursued the subject with enthusiasm and vigor. During this time countless scholars and graduate students contacted me about using the book for their own research; and over the years, several adopted the book for advanced courses. Since the book's release I have continued the research into slavery and medicine, and this has produced three scholarly articles (two published) and another book (unpublished). Moreover, the book Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana has been in the processes of revision (intermittently) and this important enterprise continues. However, to accommodate those still seeking the now out-of-print book, I am grateful that Liberated Scholars Press was able to reprint the original text of the manuscript with very few changes. This area of research and scholarship continues to be my passion, and I am pleased to say that I was always undeterred in its pursuit. For those who championed the book, know that it has rather humbly withstood the test of time. I also acknowledge the support of many individuals and organizations (some of whom are cited in the book); and I thank them profuselyespecially the following: Dr. Michael White, Dr. Abena Lewis-Mhoon, Dr. Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie, Dr. Claudia Nelson, Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, and Dr. Elizabeth Clark-Lewis. And, as always, I truly appreciate the support of Carlos Medina-Montes and Zamaniya Bankole. This research has been the undertaking of a lifetime, one which constantly reminds me of at least two cardinal virtues of scholarship: always ask the right question and tell the truth.

Katherine Bankole-Medina
Baltimore, Maryland
January, 2017

I am very grateful to faculty members of Temple University's Department of African American Studies: Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Dr. Abu Abarry, Dr. Nilgun Okur, and Dr. Emeka Nwadiora of Temple University's School of Social Administration. While I am indebted to numerous individuals and institutions, I would like to thank Ms. Catherine Kahn, Archivist at the Touro Infirmary Archives, New Orleans, Louisiana; the Amistad Research Center and the Howard Tilton Library, Louisiana Collection, of Tulane University; the libraries of Southern University at New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, and the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I am also indebted to Ms. Nakia Laurie of Atlanta, Georgia; Ms. Sekai Adero and Mrs. Doris Clowney, both of Temple University, Philadelphia; and Ms. Colleen McMullen of the University of Pittsburgh.

Enslavement and medicine historiography has not addressed the African's proactive participation in, and development of, medicine in the United States. The scholarly literature largely focuses on "Negro/Slave Medicine" and the efforts of slaveowners to acquire adequate care for the enslaved African. Enslavement and medicine scholars have contended that Africans were incapable of fostering a medical universe that was reflective of their indigenous African culture and different from the European medical legacy left to Whites. This research Afrocentrically addresses the African's proactive management of medical care; and the neglect of scholars to include brutality and punishment, and its arbitrary nature, in the enslaved African's constant need for medical attention. In addition, slave labor (particularly that involving agriculture) was found to be an important medical health risk factor, including two overlooked labor tasks of enslaved African womenbreeding and concubinage. Enslaved Africans in the southeastern parishes of antebellum Louisiana retained a significant Africanism in their medical universe which was the sustained pursuit of holistic healing. Enslaved Africans operated as agents of their own medical care, and not always as dependent recipients of care from slaveowners as the literature suggests. Africans participated as diviners and dispensers of medical care (in the Babalawo and Onishegun sense, representative of the West African Yoruba tradition). However, antebellum observers and contemporary scholars have characterised the African materia medica in the institution of enslavement in the United States as "superstitious" legacies from the continent of Africa. Due to many external factors, and because of their enslavement status, Africans had a higher medical health risk (mortality and morbidity) than other members of antebellum society. Through the necessity to respond immediately to medical care issues, enslaved Africans in the diaspora demonstrated the persistence of the traditional African worldview regarding holistic well-being.