You are in: Exhibits: Herbs:
AntebellumYou are in: Exhibits: Herbs:
Antebellum
 |
<Back |
Forward> |
The general health of black slaves was poor because their living conditions were poor.
Slaves lived in dirty, crowded quarters, with no running water. "There were no privies used in the country," wrote an Appomattox County man to a doctor in Charlottesville.
Slave cabins were stuffy, rats and other disease-carrying animals common. Dirty drinking water, unwashed food, and poor diet all threatened slaves’ health. So did ragged clothing, dangerous working conditions, and physical punishments such as whipping.
Under such conditions, infant and child mortality rates were high. Many children died of diphtheria, whooping cough, and sickle cell disease. Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, and venereal diseases were common among blacks and whites alike, but cholera affected slaves more than whites because of slaves’ poor living conditions.
Cholera epidemics struck Virginia four times before the Civil War. In 1854 cholera spread rapidly along the James River and Kanawha Canal between Richmond and Lynchburg.
During serious illnesses, slave owners usually took care of their human property. Their reasons for doing so included protection of their financial investment, concern for the slave, and fear that a slave’s sickness might spread to the white family.
Slave owners also took care of their slaves because doctors were few and were poorly trained. In 1811 Thomas Jefferson told his overseer at Poplar Forest to treat sick slaves with salts, a light diet, sugar or molasses, and "kind attention." Jefferson did not believe in wasting money on doctors, who "oftener do harm than good."
The treatments doctors used most often, bleeding and purging, usually left their patients worse rather than better off. Doctors and others were ignorant about the causes of disease and did not understand the importance of hand-washing and general cleanliness.
|
<Back |
Forward> |