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OverviewEnslavement 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 women-breeding 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 characterized 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Katherine Bankole-Medina Ph DPublisher: Liberated Scholars Press Imprint: Liberated Scholars Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.467kg ISBN: 9780692895290ISBN 10: 0692895299 Pages: 350 Publication Date: 18 May 2017 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In stock We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationKatherine Bankole-Medina, Ph.D., is a Professor of History and Distinguished Faculty Researcher at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |