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Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America
Leslie A. Schwalm
2023
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This social and cultural history of Civil War medicine and science sheds important light on the question of why and how anti-Black racism survived the destruction of slavery. During the war, white Northerners promoted ideas about Black inferiority under the guise of medical and scientific authority. In particular, the Sanitary Commission and Army medical personnel conducted wartime research aimed at proving Black medical and biological inferiority. They not only subjected Black soldiers and refugees from slavery to substandard health care but also scrutinized them as objects of study. This mistreatment of Black soldiers and civilians extended after life to include dissection, dismemberment, and disposal of the Black war dead in unmarked or mass graves and medical waste pits. Simultaneously, white medical and scientific investigators enhanced their professional standing by establishing their authority on the science of racial difference and hierarchy. Drawing on archives of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, recollections of Civil War soldiers and medical workers, and testimonies from Black Americans, Leslie A. Schwalm exposes the racist ideas and practices that shaped wartime medicine and science. Painstakingly researched and accessibly written, this book helps readers understand the persistence of anti-Black racism and health disparities during and after the war.
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Keywords
- 1861–1877 (American Civil War period and the era of Reconstruction)
- American Civil War
- Anthropometry
- autopsies
- Black medical practitioners
- Black Soldiers
- Black Women
- Burial
- burial grounds
- Civil war
- Civil War medicine
- contraband
- Disease
- Dissection
- enslaved people
- History
- history of medicine
- hospital workers
- Hospitals
- Human remains
- Humanities
- Knowledge Production
- medical experimentation
- medicine
- Medicine: General Issues
- Military History
- Military Medicine
- military racism
- northern racism
- race and medicine
- racial inequalities
- racial injustice
- refugees from slavery
- scientific racism
- Segregation
- Social discrimination & inequality
- Social issues & processes
- Society & culture: general
- Society & Social Sciences
- thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1K The Americas::1KB North America (USA and Canada)::1KBB United States of America, USA
- thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MN 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899::3MNQ Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899::3MNQ-US-E c 1860 to c 1869
- thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MN 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899::3MNQ Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899::3MNQS c 1860 to c 1869
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFA Social discrimination and social justice
- thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
- thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHW Military history::NHWF Early modern warfare (including gunpowder warfare)
- thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHW Military history::NHWR Specific wars and campaigns::NHWR3 Civil wars
- United States Sanitary Commission
- white philanthropy
- white physicians
- White Women
Links
DOI: 10.5149/9781469672717_SchwalmEditions