Slave Medicine

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Date: Wed, 1 May 1996
From: Randy Shifflett
Subject: Slave Medicine query

I have a graduate student working in the history of medicine who is interested in the topice of slave medicine, its use, practice, and dissemination, not only among the slave populations, but also the transfer of folk medicine to the white "professional" community of physicians. Her name is Sarah Cotton- Mitchell. She is familiar with the standard secondary literature and the work of Kiple, Savitt, etc. I have suggested that she look at the Slave Narrative Collection, using the index of Jacobs to search for information on slave medical practices. Are there other sources of information on how slave medicine might have informed medical practice in the antebellum South? Did folk medicine in the form of herbal remedies, magic and superstition, or even the practice of midwifery spread from the slave to white society? Any leads would be appreciated.

Randy Shifflett
Dept of History
Virginia Tech
Shifflet@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu

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Date: Thu, 2 May 1996
From: David Herr
Subject: Slave Medicine - 3 responses

The dissertation by Sharla Fett (Rutgers, 1995) on slave women healers should be helpful.

Karen Anderson
Univ. of Arizona

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JMV@GWUVM.GWU.EDU writes:

The most thorough going compendium of African-American folk medicine is Harry Hyatt's four volumes _Hodoo_, _Rootwork_, _Witchcraft_, _Conjuration_ ; all privately published out of Hanibal, Mo. in the 1970s. Another work that could prove useful are volumes 6 and 7 of the _Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore_ edited by Wayland Hand which contain extensive comparative annotations to folk medicinal practices, many of them covering African-American sources.

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Jackie Henrich writes:

If you are looking for literature on slave medicine, you should call the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. Their phone number is 301-496-5405. Their holdings are listed in the MEDLINE database. Ask for a librarian to help you with the search.

Jackie Henrich
Preservation Section
National Library of Medicine

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Date: Thu, 2 May 1996
From: Amy Klemm
Subject: Slave Medicine

Dr. Ken Brown of the Anthropology Department at the University of Houston has done extensive work on slave culture while excavating an old plantation in Brazoria County, Texas. I remember him mentioning that his students and he had unearthed a conjurer's box (fully intact). Dr. Brown was so fascinated that he may have explored slave medicine in detail in order to place his find within the proper historical-archaeological context. His e-mail address is

KLBrown@uh.edu

Dr. James H. Jones, a professor of medical history at the University of Houston,may also have some good information. He's not quite into e-mail; his address follows.

History Department
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3785
(713) 743-3104

I hope these leads prove worthwhile.

Amy L. Klemm
Teaching Assistant
History Dept.
Univ. of Houston