Dirt, disease and death: control, resistance and change in the post-emancipation Caribbean

Abstract

This study examines how health facilities and services were used as an agency of worker control in the British Caribbean between 1838 and 1860. It argues that planter health strategies were based on flawed assumptions. The resultant policy of deprivation of access to medical services by the labouring population backfired within 16 years of freedom when a cholera epidemic rocked the region. It exposed the poor living conditions of the free villages and generated fear and panic among the local elite who were forced to make policy changes regarding health and sanitation. As a result the first steps towards the establishment of public health services in the British Caribbean were stimulated.Keywords: British Caribbean; emancipation of slaves; health policy; sanitation; cholera. Resumo Examina o uso de instalações e serviços de saúde como instrumento de controle dos trabalhadores no

The Colonial Legacy and the Jamaican Healthcare System

“…This contributed to grave public health consequences. With the emergence of these informal settlements, poverty, poor housing and squalor, the island became a petri dish of tropical diseases, among them, yaws, tuberculosis, cholera, malaria, as well as high mortality and morbidity rates, especially among infants (Pemberton 2012).…”

Historical Perspectives on Medical Professionalism in the Caribbean

“…In the post emancipation period, there was a greater need for healthcare in the Caribbean, especially among the newly freed population. Rita Pemberton argues that emancipation resulted in a diminishing community of European-trained doctors and therefore a more expensive and scarce supply of medical services which planters manipulated to secure control over the newly freed labor supply (16). The establishment of the Barbados General Hospital in 1844 provides a good example of the postemancipation demand for medical services.…”