ABSTRACT
Enslavement in Louisiana, especially southeastern Louisiana, is considered somewhat different from enslavement as practiced in other parts of the lower South. New Orleans enslavement is thought to be unique because the large number of free people of color intermingled with enslaved Africans who worked as domestics, artisans, skilled craftspersons and agricultural laborers. The traditional focus of enslavement and medicine studies has been to prove or support the thesis that Africans were treated "well" in the slaveocracy; that slaveowners cared something about the African's humanity, and that these caring phenomena can be quantified. Disease devoid of racial connotations was a major medical risk enslaved Africans faced. The significant aspect of antebellum morbidity was the racial connotation applied where Africans were concerned. The complex nature of enslavement and medicine in the old South included the questions about African humanity. Legacies from the traditional African worldview influenced Africana medicine in the antebellum South.
