For the Health of the Enslaved
Slaves, Medicine and Power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848
Distributed for Museum Tusculanum Press
For the Health of the Enslaved
Slaves, Medicine and Power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848
With the abolition of the Danish slave trade in the early nineteenth century, slave health had become a central concern in the Danish West Indies for plantation owners and colonial administrators who were no longer able to replace a population decimated by high mortality rates with slaves from Africa. In For the Health of the Enslaved, Niklas Thode Jensen offers a comprehensive look at the health conditions of the enslaved at that time and how health care policy fueled an ongoing power struggle between planters, administrators, and the enslaved in the waning years of human bondage in the New World.
352 pages | 7 color plates, 3 halftones, 5 maps, 40 tables | 6 3/8 x 9 1/2 | © 2012
History: European History
Reviews
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Subject and Research Questions
Definitions
Methods and Structures
Hypotheses and Theories
The Source material
Historiography
Chapter 2: Context
Danish, British and French West Indian History, Geography and Ecology
Demography in West Indian Enslaved Populations
The Development of Western Medicine and the Health Service on St Croix
The Medicine of the Enslaved: Obeah and Herbs
Chapter 3: Diseases, Therapies, and Causes of Death
The Diseases of the Enslaved Workers and the Doctors’ Therapies
Seasonal Morbidity
Causes of Death among Enslaved Plantation Workers, 1842–47
Slave Laws and Health Factors
Chapter 4: Three Case Studies of the Health Policy of the Danish Colonial Administration
The Puzzle of Nutrition: Requirements, Rations, Crops and Natural Resources
Smallpox, Inoculation and Vaccination
Midwives, Obstetrics and Births
Chapter 5: Conclusion
The Medical World, Morbidity, and Mortality among the Enslaved Workers on St Croix
Appendix
List of figures, tables and calculations
Bibliography
Index