Slavery In The Old South Essay

During the nineteenth century, there were a variety of diseases that affected both slaves and their masters in the Antebellum South of the United States. Tuberculosis, yellow fever, whooping cough, malaria, worms, cholera, and diphtheria were some of the many medical conditions that affected much of the population. Childbirth also had a large impact on the health of women and newborn children, due to a lack of knowledge about proper nutrition and prenatal care. As a result, there were many accidents during childbirth and a high mortality rate ("Plantation Medicine and Health"). The same medical solutions to these diseases were often used for both masters and their slaves, however it was ultimately the slave master's decision about the health care of their slaves. James O. Breedon, editor of Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management in the Old South, stated, “In matters of health care, slaveowners often extended their ideas concerning domestic medicine to their slaves. In many cases, the owner provided the same care for the slaves as he did for himself and his family. In order to exercise what they felt was their

right, however, slaveowners insisted that they be notified when a slave was sick. This was important to masters to ensure that they could exercise their control over the slave body” (Breedon 163-223). Slaves often received the same treatments, but slave owners wanted to be sure that they had total control over their slaves from every aspect.
Medical professionals such as physicians were often hard to call when needed in the Antebellum South. According to Glenda Sullivan, “Physicians were few and far between, and their range of care was dependent upon their professional training. Due to the shortage of physicians and the distance that often separated doctors from the plantations, men and women (both white and black) were often left on their own to treat illnesses, handle medical emergencies, and to bring new life into this world” (Sullivan 17). Slaves were essential to providing medical care for those on their plantation due to the lack of qualified medical personnel. Home made remedies, superstition, and advice from physician-written manuals were common solutions to a variety of medical conditions in the 1800’s. Enslaved blacks, as well as white owners, often did not have access to physicians when faced with illness or disease.
The average lifespan of slaves in the Old South differed from that of their white owners and even free African African Americans during their time period.

The life expectancy of slave children during the nineteenth century was about half as long as white children from birth until age fourteen. Complications for the slaves during childbirth caused the large margin in life expectancy, and many slave babies didn’t live past the age of one. If they survived until adulthood, the lifespan of slaves was an average of twenty-two years compared to adult whites who were expected to live into their early forties (“What was Life Like Under Slavery”). Free black Americans typically lived around thirty years, meaning the average lifespan of free blacks was about eight years longer than the lifespan of enslaved African Americans during the same time

period.