African American Slavery and Disability

Description:

"Disability is often mentioned in discussions of slave health, mistreatment and abuse, but constructs of how "able" and "disabled" bodies influenced the institution of slavery has gone largely overlooked. This volume uncovers a history of disability in African American slavery from the primary record, analyzing how concepts of race, disability, and power converged in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. Slaves with physical and mental impairments often faced unique limitations and conditions in their diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation as property. Slaves with disabilities proved a significant challenge to white authority figures, torn between the desire to categorize them as different or defective and the practical need to incorporate their "disorderly" bodies into daily life. Being physically "unfit" could sometimes allow slaves to escape the limitations of bondage and oppression, and establish a measure of self-control. Furthermore, ideas about and reactions to disability--appearing as social construction, legal definition, medical phenomenon, metaphor, or masquerade--highlighted deep struggles over bodies in bondage in antebellum America." -- Publisher's description.

subjects: Health and hygiene,  Health and race,  Disabilities,  Slavery,  Slaves,  Wounds and injuries,  Human body,  History,  Developmental disabilities,  Human body, social aspects,  Slavery, united states, history,  Race,  Slaves, united states,  Southern states, history,  Enslavement,  Disabled Persons,  Enslaved Persons,  African Americans,  History, 19th Century,  Esclaves,  Santé et hygiène,  Histoire,  Lésions et blessures,  Handicap,  Aspect social,  Corps humain,  Santé et race,  Médecine,  HEALTH & FITNESS,  Diseases,  General,  Health Care Issues,  MEDICAL,  Health Care Delivery,  Health Policy,  Public Health,  SOCIAL SCIENCE,  Disease & Health Issues,  Modern,  Ethnic Studies,  African-American Studies,  Social aspects,  Schwarze,  Sklave,  Behinderung,  Südstaaten,  Enslaved persons, united states

Places: Southern States

Times: 19th century