Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:01:25.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lead Contact and Poisoning in Barbados Slaves: Historical, Chemical, and Biological Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Jerome S. Handler ,
Arthur C. Aufderheide ,
Robert S. Corruccini ,
Elizabeth M. Brandon  and
Lorentz E. Wittmers Jr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Lead contact and lead poisoning have received scant attention in discussions of early West Indian societies but are potentially important issues in considering the health and medical problems of blacks. Although our discussion focuses on Barbados, the West Indian historical literature strongly suggests that our general findings are applicable to other Caribbean areas and have implications for understanding some of the disabilities of early white populations as well. In this paper we also seek to illustrate how bioanthropological and chemical analyses of slave skeletal remains and historical data can complement one another in defining and investigating various dimensions of slave life.

Type
The Biological Past of the Black
Information
Social Science History , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 1986 , pp. 399 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1986 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlgren, L., Haeger-Aronsen, B., Mattsson, S., and Schütz, A. (1980) “In-Vivo Determination of Lead in the Skeleton After Occupational Exposure to Lead.” British Journal of Industrial Medicine 37: 109–113.Google Scholar
Anderson, A. (1785) “Barbados.” Ms. 610. Linnean Society of London.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1810) Authentic History of the English West Indies. London.Google Scholar
Aronson, S. M. (1983) “Lead and the Demon Rum in Colonial America.” Rhode Island Medical Journal 66: 37–40.Google Scholar
Aufderheide, A. C., Neiman, F. D., Wittmers, L. E., and Rapp, G. (1981) “Lead in Bone II: Skeletal-Lead Content as an Indicator of Lifetime Lead Ingestion and the Social Correlates in an Archaeological Population.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 55: 285–291.Google Scholar
Aufderheide, A. C., Angel, J. L., Kelley, J. O., Outlaw, A. C., Outlaw, M. A., Rapp, G., and Wittmers, L. E. (1985) “Lead in Bone III: Prediction of Social Correlates from Skeletal Lead Content in Four Colonial American Populations (Catoctin Furnace, College Landing, Governor’s Land, and Irene Mound).” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 66: 353–361.Google Scholar
Barbados Assembly (1818) The Report from a Select Committee of the House of Assembly, Appointed to Inquire into the Origin, Causes, and Progress of the Late Insurrection. Barbados.Google Scholar
Barbados Council (1824) A Report of a Committee of the Council of Barbadoes, Appointed to Inquire into the Actual Condition of the Slaves in this Island. London.Google Scholar
Barbados Department of Archives (various dates) Recopied Deeds Books; Inventories, Boxes: Hackett, Taylor, Byrrowes, and Records of Drax Hall.Google Scholar
Barltrop, D. and Khoo, H. E. (1975) “Nutritional Determinants of Lead Absorption,” in Hemphill, D. (ed.) Trace Substances in Environmental Health IX. Columbia: University of Missouri: 369–376.Google Scholar
Bellgrove, W. (1755) A Treatise Upon Husbandry or Planting. Boston.Google Scholar
Bell, J. U.and Thomas, J. A. (1980) “Effects of Lead on Mammalian Reproduction,” in Singhal, R. L. and Thomas, J. A., (eds.) Lead Toxicity. Baltimore and Munich: Urban and Schwarzenberg: 169–185.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. H. (1958) Bondsmen and Bishops: Slavery and Apprenticeship on the Codrington Plantations of Barbados, 1710-1838. University of California Publications in History 62. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Betts, P. R., Astley, R., and Raine, D. N. (1973) “Lead Intoxication in Children in Birmingham.” British Medical Journal 1: 402–406.Google Scholar
Bridenbaugh, C. and Bridenbaugh, R. (1972) No Peace Beyond the Line. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cadwalader, T. (1745) An Essay on the West-India Dry-Gripes. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Christoffersson, J. O., Schiitz, A., Ahlgren, L., Haeger-Aronsen, B., Mattsson, S., and Skerfving, S. (1984) “Lead in Finger-Bone Analyzed in Vivo in Active and Retired Lead Workers.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 6: 447–457.Google Scholar
Clark, J. (1797) A Treatise on the Yellow Fever, as it Appeared in the Island of Dominica … to which are Added Observations on … Some Other West Indian diseases. London.Google Scholar
Collins, Dr. (1811) Practical Rules for the Management and Medical Treatment of Negro Slaves, in the Sugar Colonies. London. (1st ed. 1803).Google Scholar
Corruccini, R. S., Aufderheide, A. C., and Handler, J. S., and Wittmers, L. E. (n.d.) “Patterning of Skeletal Lead Content in Barbados Slaves.” Unpublished manuscript, submitted to Archaeometry.Google Scholar
Corruccini, R. S.and Handler, J. S. (1980) “Temporomandibular Joint Size Decrease in American Blacks: Evidence from Barbados.” Journal of Dental Research 59: 1528.Google Scholar
Corruccini, R. S.and Handler, J. S. and Jacobi, K. P. (1985) “Chronological Distribution of Enamel Hypoplasias and Weaning in a Caribbean Slave Population.” Human Biology 57: 699–711.Google Scholar
Corruccini, R. S., Jacobi, K. P., Handler, J. S., and Aufderheide, A. C. (n.d.) “Implications of Tooth Root Hypercementosis in a Barbados Slave Skeletal Collection.” Unpublished manuscript, submitted to the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.Google Scholar
Corruccini, R. S., Handler, J. S., Mutaw, R., and Lange, F. W. (1982) “Osteology of a Slave Burial Population from Barbados, West Indies.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 59: 443–459.Google Scholar
Craton, M. (1978) Searching for the Invisible Man. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dancer, T. (1801) The Medical Assistant; or Jamaica Practice of Physic. Kingston, Jamaica.Google Scholar
Dickson, W. (1789) Letters on Slavery. London.Google Scholar
Drax, H. (1755) “Instructions for the Management of Drax-Hall and the Irish-Hope Plantations [ca. 1670],” in Belgrove, W. (ed.) A Treatise Upon Husbandry or Planting. Boston: 51–86.Google Scholar
Dunn, R. S. (1972) Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Eastwell, H. D., Thomas, B. J., and Thomas, B. W. (1983) “Skeletal Lead Burden in Aborigine Petrol Sniffers.” Letter to the Editor, The Lancet 2: 524–525.Google Scholar
Edwards, B. (1810) The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. 3 vols. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Eisinger, J. (1982) “Lead Wine: Eberhard Gockel and the Colica Pictonum.” Medical History 26: 279–302.Google Scholar
Frere, H. (1768) A Short History of Barbados From its First Discovery and Settlement to the End of the Year 1767. London.Google Scholar
Gibbes, P. (1797) Instructions for the Treatment of Negroes, Etc. Etc. Etc. London.Google Scholar
Grainger, J. (1764) An Essay on the More Common West India Diseases. London.Google Scholar
Guinee, V. F. (1972) “Lead Poisoning.” The American Journal of Medicine 52 (3): 283–288.Google Scholar
Hall, R. (1764) Acts, Passed in the Island of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
Hall, R. (1924) A General Account of the First Settlement and of the Trade and Constitution of the Island of Barbados, Written in the Year 1755. Shilstone, E. M. (ed.) Barbados.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S. (1963a) “Pottery Making in Rural Barbados.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 19: 314–334.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S. (1963b) “A Historical Sketch of Pottery Manufacture in Barbados.” Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 30: 129–153.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S. (1974) The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S.and Corruccini, R. S. (1983) “Plantation Slave Life in Barbados: A Physical Anthropological Analysis.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 65–90.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S.and Corruccini, R. S. (1986) “Weaning Among West Indian Slaves: Historical and Bioanthropological Evidence from Barbados.” William and Mary Quarterly 43: 111–117.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S.and Lange, F. W. (1978) Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S.and Lange, F. W. (1979) “Plantation Slavery on Barbados, West Indies.” Archaeology 32: 45–52.Google Scholar
Handler, J. S., Corruccini, R. S., and Mutaw, R. J. (1982) “Tooth Mutilation in the Caribbean: Evidence from a Slave Burial Population in Barbados.” Journal of Human Evolution 11: 297–313.Google Scholar
Harlan, W. R., Landis, J. R., Schmouder, R. L., Goldstein, N. G., and Harlan, L. C. (1985) “Blood Lead and Blood Pressure. Relationship in the Adolescent and Adult U. S. Population.” Journal of the American Medical Association 253: 530–534.Google Scholar
Harris, W. A., Harden, T. E. and Dawson, E. B. (1979) “Apparent Effect of Ascorbic Acid Medication on Semen Metal Levels.” Fertility and Sterility 32: 455–459.Google Scholar
Hartley, H. M. (1949) “Of the Produce of the Plantations,” in Klingberg, F. J. (ed.) Codrington Chronicle: An Experiment in Anglican Altruism on a Barbados Plantation, 1710-1834. University of California Publications in History 37: 63–84. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hendy, T. W. B. (1833) An Attempt to Prove the Fallacy of Inflicting Corporal Punishment to Prevent or to Lessen the Commission of Crime. Barbados.Google Scholar
Hernberg, S. (1980) “Biochemical and Clinical Effects and Responses as Indicated by Blood Concentration,” in Singhal, R. L. and Thomas, J. A. (eds.) Lead Toxicity. Baltimore and Munich: Urban and Schwarzenberg: 367–399.Google Scholar
Hillary, W. (1766) Observations on the Changes of the Air and the Concomitant Epidemical Diseases in the Island of Barbadoes. London. (1st ed. 1759).Google Scholar
Holder, H. E. (1788) A Short Essay on the Subject of Negro Slavery, with Particular Reference to the Island of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. (1750) The Natural History of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
Hunter, J. (1785) “Some Experiments Made upon Rum, in Order to Ascertain the Cause of the Colic, Frequent Among the Soldiers in … Jamaica, in the Years 1781 and 1782.” Medical Transactions, Published by the College of Physicians in London 3: 227–249.Google Scholar
Jacquet, P. (1977) “Early Embryonic Development in Lead-Intoxicated Mice.” Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 101: 641–643.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. W. (1824) An Account of the Management of Certain Estates in the Island of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
Kiple, K. F. (1984) The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lauwers, M. C., Hauspie, R. C., Susanne, C., and Verheyden, J. (1986) “Comparison of Biometric Data of Children with High and Low Levels of Lead in the Blood.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 69: 107–116.Google Scholar
Ligon, R. (1657) A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
McCord, C. (1953a) “Lead and Lead Poisoning in Early America: Benjamin Franklin and Lead Poisoning.” Industrial Medicine and Surgery 22: 392–399.Google Scholar
McCord, C. (1953b) “Lead and Lead Poisoning in Early America: The Pewter Era.” Industrial Medicine and Surgery 22: 573–577.Google Scholar
McCord, C. (1954a) “Lead and Lead Poisoning in Early America: The Lead Pipe Period.” Industrial Medicine and Surgery 23: 27–31.Google Scholar
McCord, C. (1954b) “Lead and Lead Poisoning in Early America: Lead Compounds.” Industrial Medicine and Surgery 23: 75–80.Google Scholar
McCord, C. (1954c) “Lead and Lead Poisoning in Early America: Clinical Lead Poisoning in the Colonies.” Industrial Medicine and Surgery 23: 120–125.Google Scholar
Mackie, A., Townshend, A., and Waldron, H. A. (1975) “Lead Concentrations in Bones from Roman York.” Journal of Archaeological Science 2: 235–237.Google Scholar
Mahaffey, K. R. (1977) “Relation Between Quantities of Lead Ingested and Health Effects of Lead in Humans.” Pediatrics 59: 448–456.Google Scholar
Mahaffey, K. R., Goyer, R. A., and Haseman, J. K. (1973) “Dose Response to Lead Ingestion in Rats Fed Low Dietary Calcium.” Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine 82: 92–101.Google Scholar
Massachusetts (1742) Acts and Laws of His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. Boston.Google Scholar
Miller, G. Jr. (1815) The Traveller’s Guide to Madeira and the West Indies. Haddington, Eng.Google Scholar
Moore, S. (1801) The Public Acts in Force; Passed by the Legislature of Barbados. London.Google Scholar
Moore, M. R., Meredith, P. A., Campbell, B. C., Goldberg, A., and Baird, A. (1978) “The Effect of Calcium Glycerophosphate on Industrial and Experimental Lead Absorption.” Drugs Under Experimental Clinical Research 4: 17–24.Google Scholar
Moseley, B. (1787) A Treatise on Tropical Diseases, on Military Operations, and on the Climate of the West Indies. London.Google Scholar
Needleman, H. L., Gunnoe, C., Leviton, A., Reed, R., Peresie, H., Maher, C., and Barrett, P. (1979) “Deficits in Psychological and Classroom Performance of Children with Elevated Dentine Lead Levels.” New England Journal of Medicine 300: 689–694.Google Scholar
Ogilby, J. (1670) America: Being the Latest and Most Accurate Description of the New World. London.Google Scholar
Oldmixon, J. (1708) The British Empire in America. 2 vols. London.Google Scholar
Oldmixon, J. (1741) The British Empire in America. 2 vols. London.Google Scholar
Parry, D. (1789) “Extract of a Letter from Governor Parry to the Right Honourable Lord Sydney, August 18, 1788.” British House of Commons Parliamentary Papers 26: 13–24. London.Google Scholar
Pinckard, G. (1806) Notes on the West Indies. 3 vols. London.Google Scholar
Porter, G. (1830) The Nature and Properties of the Sugarcane. London.Google Scholar
Quier, J. (1773) “Letter VI. Account of the Bilious Cholic, Called the Dry Belly-Ache,” in Monro, D. (ed.) Letters and Essays on the Small-Pox and Inoculation, the Measles, the Dry Belly-Ache … of the West Indies. London, 1778: 150–194.Google Scholar
Russell, F. (1695) “Letter to Lords of Trade and Plantations, 23 March,” in Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies 1693-1696: 445. London.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1693) Seplasium. The Compleat English Physician. London.Google Scholar
Scott, M. (1985) Unpublished Data. Department of Medical Physics, University of Birmingham, England.Google Scholar
Sheridan, R. (1973) Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Sheridan, R. (1985) Doctors and Slaves: A Medical and Demographic History of Slavery in the British West Indies, 1680-1834. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sloane, H. (1707) A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nievis, S. Christophers and Jamaica. London.Google Scholar
Society for the Improvement of Plantership in the Island of Barbados (1811) Minutes. Liverpool.Google Scholar
Stowe, H. D.and Goyer, R. A. (1971) “The Reproductive Ability and Progeny of F1 Lead-Toxic Rats.” Fertility and Sterility 22: 755–760.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. (1690) An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West India Colonies. London.Google Scholar
Thomson, J. (1820) A Treatise on the Diseases of the Negroes as They Occur in the Island of Jamaica. Jamaica.Google Scholar
Towne, R. (1726) A Treatise of the Diseases Most Frequent in the West Indies. London.Google Scholar
Trapham, T. (1679) A Discourse on the State of Health in the Island of Jamaica. London.Google Scholar
Tryon, T. (1684) Friendly Advice to the Gentlemen Planters of the East and West Indies. London.Google Scholar
Uzych, L. (1985) “Teratogenesis and Mutagenesis Associated with the Exposure of Human Males to Lead: A Review.” The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 58: 9–17.Google Scholar
Vermande-Van Eck, G. J.and Meigs, J. W. (1960) “Changes in the Ovary of the Rhesus Monkey After Chronic Lead lntoxification.” Fertility and Sterility 11: 223–234.Google Scholar
Waldron, H. A. (1969) “James Hardy and the Devonshire Colic.” Medical History 13: 74–81.Google Scholar
Waldron, H. A., Mackie, A., and Townshend, A. (1976) The Lead Content of Some Romano-British Bones. Archaeometry 18: 221–227.Google Scholar
Walduck, J. (1710) “Letter to J. Petiver.” Sloane Manuscripts 2302. British Library.Google Scholar
Warren, H. (1740) A Treatise Concerning the Malignant Fever in Barbados and the Neighboring Islands. London.Google Scholar
Wedeen, R. P. (1984) Poison in the Pot: The Legacy of Lead. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Weller, C. V. (1915) “The Blastophthoric Effect of Chronic Lead Poisoning.” Journal of Medical Research 33: 271–293.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. (1817) Medical and Miscellaneous Observations Relative to the West India islands. 2 vols. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Wittmers, L. E. Jr., Alich, A., and Aufderheide, A. C. (1981) “Lead in Bone I: Direct Analysis for Lead in Milligram Quantities of Bone Ash by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy.” American Journal of Clinical Pathology 75: 80–85.Google Scholar
Wright, W. (1828) Memoirs of the late William Wright. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Zielhuis, R. L. (1975) “Dose-Response Relationships for Inorganic Lead: I. Biochemical and Hematological Responses.” International Archives of Occupational Health 35: 1.Google Scholar