Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction

TitleSick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsDowns, Jim
Number of Pages264
PublisherOxford University Press
CityNew York
Abstract

This volume recovers the untold story of one of the bitterest ironies in American history--that the emancipation of the slaves, seen as one of the great turning points in U.S. history, had devastating consequences for innumerable freed people. Drawing on massive new research into the records of the Medical Division of the Freedmen's Bureau--a nascent national health system that cared for more than one million freed slaves--the study shows how the collapse of the plantation economy released a plague of lethal diseases. With emancipation, African Americans seized the chance to move, migrating as never before. But in their journey to freedom, they also encountered yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, dysentery, malnutrition, and exposure. To address this crisis, the Medical Division hired more than 120 physicians, establishing some forty under-financed and understaffed hospitals scattered throughout the South, largely in response to medical emergencies. Their task was to promote a healthy workforce, an aim which often excluded a wide range of freed people, including women, the elderly, the physically disabled, and children.

URLhttps://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199758722.001.0001/acprof-9780199758722
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760975615

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