African American Slavery and Disability

Bodies, Property and Power in the Antebellum South, 1800-1860
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-415-53724-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 198 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 445 g

Reihe: Studies in African American History and Culture

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Boster, Dea H.

Boster, Dea

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Geschichte der Sklaverei
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Invalidität, Krankheit und Abhängigkeit: Soziale Aspekte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: "Here Are the Marks Yet" Part 1: Bodies 2. The Dual Stigma of Race and Disability in Antebellum America 3. Sources of "Unsoundness" in African American Slaves Part 2: Property 4. Labor and Expectation in the Lives of Slaves with Disabilities 5. Disability, Value, and the Language of Slave Sales Part 3: Power 6. Disability, Mastery and Power Dynamics in the Antebellum South 7. Epilogue and Conclusion: Seeing "Moses"

Über Autor(innen)

Dea Boster received her Ph.D. in History at the University of Michigan and is an Instructor for the Humanities Department at Columbus State Community College.