An American Health Dilemma, Volume One: A Medical History of African Americans and the Problem of Race: Beginnings to 1900

At times mirroring and at times shockingly disparate to the rise of traditional white American medicine, the history of African-American health care is a story of traditional healers; root doctors; granny midwives; underappreciated and overworked African-American physicians; scrupulous and unscrupulous white doctors and scientists; governmental support and neglect; epidemics; and poverty. Virtually every part of this story revolves around race. More than 50 years after the publication of An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 classic about race relations in the USA, An American Health Dilemma presents a comprehensive and groundbreaking history and social analysis of race, race relations and the African-American medical and public health experience. Beginning with the origins of western medicine and science in Egypt, Greece and Rome the authors explore the relationship between race, medicine, and health care from the precursors of American science and medicine through the days of the slave trade with the harrowing middle passage and equally deadly breaking-in period through the Civil War and the gains of reconstruction and the reversals caused by Jim Crow laws. It offers an extensive examination of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse, and neglect of African Americans and other non-white people. Also included are biographical portraits of black medical pioneers like James McCune Smith, the first African American to earn a degree from a European university, and anecdotal vignettes,like the tragic story of "the Hottentot Venus", which illustrate larger themes. An American Health Dilemma promises to become an irreplaceable and essential look at African-American and medical history and will provide an invaluable baseline for future exploration of race and racism in the American health system. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of Figures and Tables......Page 12 Foreword......Page 16 Acknowledgments......Page 20 Preface......Page 24 Introduction......Page 30 Goals and Objectives......Page 37 Methodology......Page 41 Background for Reassessing Race, Class, and Health Care in the United States......Page 43 The Background......Page 54 Race, Biology, and Health Care in the United States: Reassessing a Relationship......Page 56 On Race: Examining an Enigma......Page 63 The Evolution of a Racially Unequal Health System......Page 72 Race Explored: A Life Sciences/Health Care Perspective......Page 74 Race: An Intellectual History......Page 81 Race: A History of Science Perspective......Page 91 Race, Medicine, and Science: Ancient Relationships......Page 94 Race, Medicine, and Science: The Middle Ages......Page 103 Race, Medicine, and Science during the Renaissance and Reformation......Page 111 Race, Medicine, and Science in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment......Page 122 Nineteenth-Century Race, Science, and Medicine......Page 127 The Social Sciences and Twentieth-Century Race, Science, and Medicine......Page 137 Race, Class, Ethnic Politics, and Health Care......Page 142 Evaluative Benchmarks of Black Progress......Page 155 Strategies to Overcome a Dream Deferred: Race, Justice, and Equity in Health Care As We Enter the Twenty-first Century......Page 173 Race, Medicine, and Society: From Prehistoric to English Colonial Times......Page 180 Ancient Western Medicine and Health Care: Race and Class Considerations in Predecessor Health Systems......Page 181 Ancient Greece: Establishing Western Science and Hierarchies......Page 187 Roman Medicine: Legions, Slaves, and Public Health......Page 192 The Middle Ages......Page 197 The Arabic Legacy of Race and Slavery......Page 202 The Scientific and Medical Renaissance: Inauspicious Racial and Medical-Social Roots......Page 205 Black Health before and during the Slave Trade: Beginnings of a Health Deficit Legacy......Page 208 Race, Medicine, and Health in the North American Colonies and the Early U.S. Republic......Page 214 Black Health in the North American English Colonies, 1619 1730......Page 216 The North American English Colonies......Page 218 Black Slave Health: Effects of the Diaspora......Page 223 Origin of a Race- and Class-Based Health System......Page 227 An Embryonic Healing Profession......Page 230 A Black Healing Tradition......Page 231 Black Health in the Republican Era, 1731 1812......Page 234 Seeds of a Multitiered, Unequal Health System......Page 238 Race, Medicine, and Health Care: Reassessing the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries......Page 241 The ~Hottentot Venus~ and Nineteenth-Century Racial Science......Page 247 A ~Slave Health Deficit~ Institutionalized: 1731 1812......Page 250 An Emerging Dual Health System in Black and White......Page 260 Race Medicine: Real or Imagined Differences?......Page 264 The Black Medical Profession: 1731 1812......Page 269 The White Medical Profession, 1731 1812......Page 272 Race, Medicine, and Health in the United States from 1812 to 1900......Page 280 Black Health and the Jacksonian and Antebellum Periods, 1812 1861......Page 282 Beginnings of a Health System: Black Subjugation, Dependency, and Separate Development......Page 290 A Unique Health System Culture's Modus Operandi: Sensationalism, Pragmatism, and Race and Class Exploitation for Scientific Advance......Page 299 A New Perspective on a Medical Icon......Page 301 Entrenchment of a Black Health Deficit......Page 308 Stewardship Denied: White Medicine in Jacksonian and Antebellum America......Page 318 The Health Professions' Color and Gender Lines......Page 331 A Slave Hospital on a ~Good~ Plantation......Page 346 The Civil War, Reconstruction, Post-Reconstruction, and Black Health, 1861 1900......Page 351 Black Health 1861 1900: A Roller-Coaster Ride to Nowhere......Page 357 The Civil War and Black Health......Page 361 Black Health and the Reconstruction Era......Page 376 Black Health in the Gilded Age......Page 380 Black Health Enters the Progressive Era......Page 384 Health System Heal Thyself......Page 386 The White Medical Profession Comes of Age......Page 404 The Black Medical Profession: Practicing behind the ~Veil~......Page 413 Health Policy Born of Pragmatism......Page 416 A Mixed Legacy......Page 436 Conclusion: Laying the Foundations of a Dual and Unequal Health System......Page 444 Notes......Page 446 Select Bibliography......Page 544 A Note on Sources......Page 574 Index......Page 580 Beginning with the origins of Western medicine and science in Egypt, Greece, and Rome the authors explore the relationship between race, medicine, and health care. An American Health Dilemma offers an extensive examination of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse, and neglect of African Americans and other non-White people. Annotation "An American Health Dilemma" presents a comprehensive, groundbreaking history of race, race relations and the African-American medical experience. It offers an extensive exam of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse and neglect of African Americans, women and other non-White people. 41 illustrations Explores the state of health care in relation to African Americans from the early days of the U.S. to the present, covering topics such as the insurance industry, social and economic factors, eugenics, and medical experiments. V. 1. Beginnings To 1900 -- V. 2. Race, Medicine, And Health Care In The United States 1900-2000. W. Michael Byrd, Linda A. Clayton. Includes Bibliographical Referencese And Indexes.