Medical bondage : race, gender, and the origins of American gynecology /
Deirdre Cooper Owens.
- Athens : The University of Georgia Press, (c)2017.
- 1 online resource (xiv, 165 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction. American gynecology and black lives -- The birth of American gynecology -- Black women's experiences in slavery and medicine -- Contested relations: slavery, sex, and medicine -- Irish immigrant women and American gynecology -- Historical black superbodies and the medical gaze -- Afterword.
Medical Bondage explores how, in the nineteenth century, experimental surgeries on enslaved and laboring women enabled the rise of American gynecology as a medical specialty, and shaped our understanding of race. Merging women's, medical, and social history, the book makes Black and Irish women's lives--not just their bodies--part of an origins story of American medicine (one that has largely been told with an exclusive focus on white male historical actors).
9780820351346 9780820353036 9780820351353
2017013982
Gynecology--History--United States--19th century. Human experimentation in medicine--History--United States--19th century. Enslaved women--Medical care--History--United States--19th century. Irish American women--Medical care--History--United States--19th century. Gynecology--history Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation--history Racism--history African Americans--history Enslaved Persons--history Vulnerable Populations History, 19th Century
History. scientific racism. history of medicine. african american studies. gynecology. women's studies. slavery. emancipation. jim crow.