“Useless”: Disability, Slave Labor, and Contradiction on Antebellum Southern Plantations
Main Article Content
Keywords
African-American history, slavery, plantation labor
Abstract
African American slaves with disabilities (broadly defined as physical, mental or aesthetic conditions seen as unfavorable or impairing) performed a variety of duties on antebellum southern plantations. However, tensions between goals of production, profit, control, and planters’ expectations often created contradictory assessments of disability in slaves. Slaves with disabilities were also at risk of abuse—including corporeal punishment, neglect, and murder—from masters.
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Dea Hadley Boster, Instructor, American Civilization, Columbus State Community College
Dea Hadley Boster (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is an instructor in American Civilization at Columbus State Community College. Her research interests include health, illness, disability, and the body in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is finishing work on a disability history of African-American slavery in the nineteenth century.