The Yellow Demon of Fever: Fighting Disease in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Slave Trade

by Manuel Barcia

Overview

A pathbreaking history of how participants in the slave trade influenced the growth and dissemination of medical knowledge

As the slave trade brought Europeans, Africans, and Americans into contact, diseases were traded along with human lives. Manuel Barcia examines the battle waged against disease, where traders fought against loss of profits while enslaved Africans fought for survival. Although efforts to control disease and stop epidemics from spreading brought little success, the medical knowledge generated by people on both sides of the conflict contributed to momentous change in the medical cultures of the Atlantic world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300252019
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Manuel Barcia is chair of global history at the University of Leeds and a recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in History. He lives in Leeds, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 "A Beautiful Spot for a Grave": Prophylaxis and Prevention in the Slave-Trade Contact Zones 27

2 The Blood of Thousands: Slave Traders and the Fight against Disease in the Age of Abolition 62

3 Cruising for Slaves and Boating up Rivers: Anti-Slave Trade Patrols and the Fight against Disease across the Atlantic 92

4 "Such an Asylum of Wretchedness": Anti-Slave Trade Reception Centers, Hospitals, and Cemeteries 125

5 A Shared Struggle: Cooperation, Learning, and Knowledge Exchange in the Atlantic World 166

Closing Remarks 194

Notes 199

Bibliography 245

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

Historians of slavery will long reference and benefit from Barcia’s rich descriptions of the hygienic conditions of the slave trade and the medical standards, theories, and methods deployed by traders.”—H-Net

Winner of the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize, sponsored by the Journal of Global Slavery

“The Yellow Demon of Fever is a stunning scholarly achievement. This highly readable social history is an indispensable study for anyone interested in knowledge exchanges in the Atlantic world.”—Judith Carney, University of California, Los Angeles

“A landmark study in the history of medicine and Atlantic slavery. Unrestrained by linguistic or imperial boundaries, Barcia’s ground-breaking book exposes the struggle for racial and medical control in the ‘contact zones’ of the Atlantic slave trade.”—Katherine Paugh, University of Oxford

“A tour de force. Barcia’s deeply researched and well-written book opens a fascinating, disturbing, and vital window into the illegal slave trade of the nineteenth century and the advancement of medical knowledge.”—Randy J. Sparks, Tulane University

”Extraordinary. A breakthrough work, among the most insightful histories of the nineteenth century written in the past half century.”—Dale Graden, University of Idaho

“This is original and well researched. It is an important contribution. I know Barcia’s work very well, and this is his best book yet.”— Paul Lovejoy, York University

From the Publisher