ABSTRACT

Enslaved Africans were subject to medical experiments and procedures, surgeries and post-mortem examinations. Medical doctors left various detailed records regarding these areas of enslavement and medicine. While much has been written on medical experimentation, few scholars have acknowledged the powerlessness of enslaved Africans. In addition to being an important part of the development of an effective treatment for vesico-vaginal fistulas, enslaved African women also were in the forefront in the development of cesarean section procedures in the United States. There are many surgical cases of vesicovaginal fistulas involving African women listed in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. Analysis of other types of surgical procedures (involving enslaved Africans) which were numerous in the antebellum period may shed more light upon these questions since Africans were significant "patients" for these procedures for a variety of reasons. Post mortem examinations were necessary to gain the depth of understanding required by medical practitioners of the antebellum period.