Citation

Thomasson F. Soc. Hist. Med. 2022; 35(1): 49-71.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Society for the Social History of Medicine, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/shm/hkaa092

PMID

35264902

PMCID

PMC8902003

Abstract

When Swedish civil servants took possession of the Caribbean island of St Barthélemy in 1785, they discovered a complex medical landscape in which Black healers played important roles. They competed with white physicians for patients and formed an itinerant community-both voluntary and forced in nature-which travelled throughout the archipelago exchanging remedies and practices. The healers' work was not associated to revolt and rebellion as in many other Caribbean territories and the Swedish court of law treated them with less cruelty than in many other colonies. The healers' activities cannot be simply reduced to acts of resistance to slavery; many of them gained the trust of large parts of both Black and white communities. Their interactions with people on the surrounding islands show how Caribbean colonial historiography gains from a wider geographical contextualisation, allowing a better understanding of the Black population's role in healing and medicine.

Language: en

Keywords

Afro-Caribbean medicine; Black healers; colonial medicinal legislation; Obeah; Swedish colonialism