History 304 Readings Wiki

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Black people who fled to the Union army didn't always die from novel or complex diseases, sometimes they just died due to a lack of basic necessities. Families such as the Miller family didn't experience being out of slavery as true freedom, as instead they were vulnerable to displacement, illness, and death. (Ezra C)

Most Civil War doctors did not have sufficient experience to tend to large armies and refugee groups. Many of them came from small practices or charitable hospitals, while others were still in the progress of working through their basic medical training. This led to them being ill-equipped to deal with epidemics that spread through the armies and others in the camps. (Ezra C)

I didn't think about the fact that though the Emancipation Proclamation freed some enslaved individuals, it provided no protection or support for them after the fact. Freed or escaped enslaved people would sometimes have to rely on Union provisions or feel that they had to join the Army to survive. (Caty)

There seems to be a cultural shift in the lives of formerly enslaved people, especially regarding medical health. Under the plantation system, the health of enslaved individuals was largely handled by themselves, through a more familial and community structure, which was disrupted once emancipation was secured. The massive transition into new spaces and a new cultural landscape changed this system of medicine and community dynamic and shifted it into something new. (Caty)

There was complete under preparedness on both sides of the war, as neither thought it would last very long. It's interesting that the Union Army was not well-equipped to aid newly freed enslaved people because that was a part of why the war was being fought. Much like the Confederacy, there was a dehumanization by the Union Army, making the freed enslaved individuals excluded from both the North and South landscapes. (Caty)

I found it interesting that many doctors saw malaria as a “southern” illness and concluded that slaves were immune to it unlike Union soldiers. Downs further argued that this led to many doctors seeing that, “black people required less treatment than white people...” (Lauren V.)

I found it interesting that many saw emancipation as an outcome of the war, however, they did not think beyond simply a slave becoming free. They did not take into account the sickness that would spread, where they would live, and how they would overall keep themselves alive. (Lauren V.)

I found it interesting that those who supported slavery used mass sickness being spread amongst fleeing enslaved people to try to disprove abolitionists claim that they were abusive towards their slaves. (Lauren V.)

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