Black Well-being: Health and Selfhood in Antebellum Black Literature

257 Pages·2016·18.638 MB·English

by  Andrea Stone

Black Well-Being
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

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Black
Well-Being
Health and Selfhood in Antebellum Black Literature
Andrea Stone
University Press of Florida
Gainesville/Tallahassee/Tampa/Boca Raton
Pensacola/Orlando/Miami/Jacksonville/Ft. Myers/Sarasota
Copyright 2016 by Andrea Stone
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This book may be available in an electronic edition.
21 20 19 18 17 16 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stone, Andrea, 1974– author.
Title: Black well-being : health and selfhood in antebellum black literature
/ Andrea Stone.
Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2016]
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043064 | ISBN 9780813062570 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: American literature—African American authors—History and
criticism. | African Americans—Intellectual life.
Classification: LCC PS153.N5 S76 2016 | DDC 810.9/896073—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043064
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University
System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida
Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New
College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North
Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
For my parents, David and Edith Gray
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The Negro thrives under the shadow of his white master, falls
readily into the position assigned him, and exists and multiplies
in increased physical well-being.
Henry S. Patterson, M.D., “Memoir of Samuel George Morton”
We should indeed regard them as wards and dependents on our
kindness, for whose well-being in every way we are deeply responsible.
William Harper, jurist and senator, “Memoir of Slavery”
It is true, efforts have been made by wise and good men in almost
every age, to enlighten and improve mankind; but these have been
confined to individual instances, and have in general been devoted to the
propagation of opinions only, in which each individual is in some degree
at variance with every other; but the discovery to which we allude, is the
practice of combining society itself in intellectual masses, for the purpose
of attaining some certain, defined, and acknowledged good, which is
generally allowed to be essential to the well-being of the whole.
Statement of the Liverpool Society
for the Abolition of Slavery
Law has as much to do with the hideous monster, slavery,
as medicine or any other respectable business.
Martin Delany, North Star, January 28, 1848
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Contents
List of Figures x
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Human, Person, Self: Blackness and
Well-Being 1
1. The Ruled and Regulated Self: Medicine and Race Science
in the Black New World 27
2. Ancient Ideals and the Healthy Self: Mary Ann Shadd’s Plea for
Emigration and Martin Robison Delany’s Condition, Elevation,
Emigration, and Destiny 51
3. The Self in Pain: Colonialism, Disability, and National Identity—
Mary Prince, Sophia Pooley, and Lavina Wormeny 84
4. The Protective Self: Slave Sexual Health, Crime, and U.S. Legal
Personhood—Celia’s Murder Trial and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents 121
5. The Promising Self: Sexual Expression, Heroism, and Revolution—
Frederick Douglass’s “The Heroic Slave” and Martin Robison
Delany’s Blake 155
Conclusion. Black Intellectuals, Black Well-Being: Questions
about the Future of Black American Literary Studies 194
Notes 201
Bibliography 213
Index 229