Slavery In The Old South Essay

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During the nineteenth century, there were a variety of diseases that affected both slaves and their masters in the Antebellum South of the United States. Tuberculosis, yellow fever, whooping cough, malaria, worms, cholera, and diphtheria were some of the many medical conditions that affected much of the population. Childbirth also had a large impact on the health of women and newborn children, due to a lack of knowledge about proper nutrition and prenatal care. As a result, there were many accidents during childbirth and a high mortality rate ("Plantation Medicine and Health"). The same medical solutions to these diseases were often used for both masters and their slaves, however it was ultimately the slave master's decision about the health care of their slaves. James O. Breedon, editor of Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management in the Old South, stated, “In matters of health care, slaveowners often extended their ideas concerning domestic medicine to their slaves. In many cases, the owner provided the same care for the slaves as he did for himself and his family. In order to exercise what they felt was their …show more content…

The life expectancy of slave children during the nineteenth century was about half as long as white children from birth until age fourteen. Complications for the slaves during childbirth caused the large margin in life expectancy, and many slave babies didn’t live past the age of one. If they survived until adulthood, the lifespan of slaves was an average of twenty-two years compared to adult whites who were expected to live into their early forties (“What was Life Like Under Slavery”). Free black Americans typically lived around thirty years, meaning the average lifespan of free blacks was about eight years longer than the lifespan of enslaved African Americans during the same time

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