Talk:Slave health on plantations in the United States

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Comment[edit]

This article is ridiculous. AIDS in the slave population? I didn't know slavery existed into the late 20th century.

Well, it has, but not (legally or commonly) in the US. Allens (talk | contribs) 11:58, 21 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Approach to the topic WP:NPOV[edit]

The article fairly describes bad living conditions and with them, decreased levels of health for plantation slaves. The facts presented, however, are without context unless the health conditions are compared with a local free population -- and perhaps relative to slaves in the West Indies and South America.

A review of the literature turns up a wide range of attitude and academic rigor. Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery was released in 1974 to critical acclaim, but has since been highly criticized. Its oft-cited table of mortality statistics is based on a small sample of blacks (n = 545).

From the perspective of the twenty-first century, the health conditions on plantations, for blacks and whites both, were deplorable. Nevertheless, between 1790 and 1860, the black population grew at the same rate as the free population (a little over five percent per year).^{[citation needed]} The free population grew as a result of immigration; importation of slaves stopped in 1808. Rhadow (talk) 12:49, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree with this and am removing the NPOV template. If slaves in the United States got the same treatment as those in other countries/colonies, the pro-slavery press would have brought it up. They didn't. The United States was the only place where:

Slave literacy and education were prohibited (see Education during the slave period in the United States.
There was an extensive reverse underground railroad, under which free blacks were kidnapped in the North, transported by force to the South, and illegally sold as slaves.
Slaves were prohibited from holding meetings without a white present (to prevent discussion of escapeor rebellion).
There was an extensive pro-slavery contingent of learned men, such as Thomas R. Dew, President of the College of William and Mary, defending slavery.
Slavery was defended as intrinsically good: "we deny that it is evil in the abstract".
States went to war to preserve slavery, on the one hand, or end it, on the other.
Churches split formally into pro- and anti-slavery factions.
Families were often split by selling off of members, especially children, "at so much the pound, Iike a hog", wrote one child later.
Fertile women were kept constantly pregnant, so as to produce a "crop" of slaves to sell. Virginia said with no shame that it exported slaves (to Deep South states).

At the same time, the United States was the only country that:

Had an extensive network of people who helped slaves escape to freedom.
Had anti-slavery newspapers, like Genius of Universal Emancipation and The Liberator (newspaper).
Sent anti-slavery speakers to other countries, especially the U.K.
Fought a civil war over slavery.

deisenbe (talk) 10:52, 21 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]