Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations (Gender and American Culture) [Paperback]
Author: Sharla M. Fett | Language: English | ISBN: 080785378X | Format: PDF, EPUB
Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations
You can download Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations (Gender and American Culture) [Paperback] for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
You can download Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations (Gender and American Culture) [Paperback] for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
Exploring the charged topic of black health under slavery, Sharla Fett reveals how herbalism, conjuring, midwifery, and other African American healing practices became arts of resistance in the antebellum South.
Fett shows how enslaved men and women drew on African precedents to develop a view of health and healing that was distinctly at odds with slaveholders' property concerns. While white slaveowners narrowly defined slave health in terms of "soundness" for labor, slaves embraced a relational view of health that was intimately tied to religion and community. African American healing practices thus not only restored the body but also provided a formidable weapon against white objectification of black health.
Enslaved women played a particularly important role in plantation health culture: they made medicines, cared for the sick, and served as midwives in both black and white households. Their labor as health workers not only proved essential to plantation production but also gave them a basis of authority within enslaved communities. Not surprisingly, conflicts frequently arose between slave doctoring women and the whites who attempted to supervise their work, as did conflicts related to feigned illness, poisoning threats, and African-based religious practices. By examining the deeply contentious dynamics of plantation healing, Fett sheds new light on the broader power relations of antebellum American slavery.
Direct download links available for Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations Fett shows how enslaved men and women drew on African precedents to develop a view of health and healing that was distinctly at odds with slaveholders' property concerns. While white slaveowners narrowly defined slave health in terms of "soundness" for labor, slaves embraced a relational view of health that was intimately tied to religion and community. African American healing practices thus not only restored the body but also provided a formidable weapon against white objectification of black health.
Enslaved women played a particularly important role in plantation health culture: they made medicines, cared for the sick, and served as midwives in both black and white households. Their labor as health workers not only proved essential to plantation production but also gave them a basis of authority within enslaved communities. Not surprisingly, conflicts frequently arose between slave doctoring women and the whites who attempted to supervise their work, as did conflicts related to feigned illness, poisoning threats, and African-based religious practices. By examining the deeply contentious dynamics of plantation healing, Fett sheds new light on the broader power relations of antebellum American slavery.
- Series: Gender and American Culture
- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1 edition (May 6, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 080785378X
- ISBN-13: 978-0807853788
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
So many people attribute African American healing to other cultures, particularly European Americans or Native Americans. While there were bound to be cultural sharing, Professor Sharla Fett makes it perfectly clear that enslaved Africans brought their own wisdom with them concerning farming and healing, as well as certain medicinal plants, with them to the Americas during the Middle Passage. "Working Cures" is an outstanding contribution to understanding distinctly American contributions to healing made by African Americans. Fett also presents the history of conjure, root doctoring, midwifery and a great deal more as it relates to medicine and healing in the African American community. Fett also illustrates the mind/body/spirit, holistic approach of African healing employed by African Americans. "Working Cures" is essential reading for those interested in learning the unique aspects of African American healing in the United States.By Stephanie Rose Bird
Excellent information about healing, herbs, and African American midwives in the antebellum period. Highly recommended for readers interested in health, birthing, and midwives in the African American community during that time. Unexpectedly, also great art!By Linda Holmes
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