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-Ipecac from South America
-Jalap from Mexico
-Opium from the Far quinine from the Andes,
-Chamomile from Europe.
Other favorites included were castor oil, calomel, laudanum, and camphor.
(Keeling et al., 2017)

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On smaller plantations, injured or sick slaves were cared for by their families in their slave cabins.

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Whites vs. black slaves in the Antebellum South

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Whites vs. black slaves in the Antebellum South

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With the institution of slavery and its societal rules on how life was lived on plantations, it was a given that the planter and his immediate family and other White overseers enjoyed all the freedoms of American citizenship. Slaves however were not viewed as having citizenship status and were seen as a commodity before the Civil War. These societal rules on race also influenced the care of the sick, who could treat them, who would request a physician, and what treatments would be used (Keeling et al., 2018).

How slaves were treated varied from plantation to plantation as their care was dependent on several factors, especially the owners’ and overseers’ views toward their slaves (Keeling et al., 2017).

- If owners viewed their slaves as mere property:  they would often impose their European treatments for illness upon anyone who was ill, or tolerated the Blacks caring for themselves in their own way  (Keeling et al., 2017) .

- If owners were more compassionate:  they viewed the slaves’ health as their utmost responsibility, acknowledging that effective treatment was important not only for the physical survival of the people, but also for the economic survival of their estate (Keeling et al., 2017) .

In the latter case,  even though it was illegal for Blacks to practice medicine, owners often also recognized and utilized the knowledge of the plantation slaves.

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Mistresses of the plantation and black slave nurses

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Mistresses of the plantation and black slave nurses

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The mistresses of the plantation nursed the sick slaves. The role that Southern women played in caring for their families’ health was not greatly different from that of mothers and wives in the north. However, the responsibility of the mistress of a large plantation was that her care extended beyond her immediate family members to everyone who lived on the estate, regardless of race and social status (Keeling et al., 2017).

Black nurses were also appreciated for their midwifery skills, and it was common practice to use them for births on plantations. Often, slave owners allowed their slave midwives to provide services to both White and Black women outside the plantation. The fee the owner charged, and sometimes shared with the Black midwife, was more reasonable than the cost of a physician, and aid was more readily available (Keeling et al., 2017).

A few Black slave nurses practiced their nursing skills outside the boundaries of the plantation or household, and some became well known for their care of others. One example of this was Jensey Snow, a Black slave nurse that received high praise as well as her freedom because of her nursing skills. After obtaining her freedom, Jensey Snow continued to serve the public, and opened a hospital in Petersburg, Virginia— later known as “the Hospital of the well known nurse, Jensey Snow.”  (Keeling et al., 2017)

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From the time the British colonists arrived in Virginia to the end of the Civil War from the years 1607-1865, many changes and advancements have happened in nursing in healthcare that has shaped the US into the healthcare that we know today. Some of the reasons that healthcare has standards and policies were from the way society and healthcare establish care for the poor and middle/upper class of society at the time.

In the early colonial period care for the sick was based on superstition and if the person’s personal character or the contents of their food was not in line with these superstitions that is why a person was sick (God’s wrath) and the conditions in how the person was being treated for their ailments (to fix the imbalance of the four humors), (Keeling et al., 2017). These odd treatments of prayer, fasting, and self-inflicted punishments were to satisfy God’s reasons for punishment because medicinal training was controlled by the churches of the time where God was always the answer.

The Company of the Daughters of Charity treated illness by nursing the sick which brought their nursing knowledge to America, (Keeling et al., 2017). With this being said, as Americans settled and prospered disease followed and care was provided at home by the women of the house through tradition and the passing of knowledge from generations before,(Keeling et al., 2017).

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Item Info

Title: Bettering House - Philadelphia Almshouse

Media Type: Engravings
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:

Located in Box: Allens Lane Art Center - Arcade Folder: Almshouses

Almshouse built 1766-67 between Spruce & Pine Streets and 10th & 11th Streets. Served as the new home of the Philadelphia Almshouse previously located at 3rd, 4th, Spruce & Pine Streets.

"The buildings were opened in October, 1767. The almshouse was laid out in the form of an L, one hundred and eighty feet by forty, two stories in height, joined by a turret thirty feet square, and four stories high. The house of employment was on the west side of the lot, running south from Spruce, fronting Eleventh Street, also in shape of an L, so that the entire range of buildings inclosed on three sides a quadrangular space. [...] A habit soon grew up among the people of calling this establishment "the Bettering-House," a title which in time became somewhat an epithet of contempt. Two hundred and eighty-four people were admitted into the almshouse in October, 1767, and in three months afterward the number had increased to three hundred and sixty-eight. The inmates of the house were soon put to work, and in it were made various kinds of goods, principally of wool, hemp, and flax."

Philadelphia Almshouse relocated in 1835 to Blockley Township in West Philadelphia.

Transcription:
[ THE BETTERING HOUSE. | Almshouse, and House for the Relief and Employment of the Poor, between Spruce | and Pine and Tenth and Eleventh streets. | BUILT in 1766-'67. | From an Engraving executed about the year 1769. | DRAWN AND ENGRAVED FOR THE SUNDAY DISPATCH EXPRESSLY TO ILLUSTRATE | WESTCOTT''S "HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA." ]

Source:
[1] Scharf, J. T. & Westcott, t. (1884). History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Volume 2. (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co.) Pg. 1451.

Creation Year: ca. 1884
Geocode Latitude: Geocode Longitude:-75.159209
Geocode Latitude:39.945953

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Digital Collections: Bettering House - Philadelphia Almshouse

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Title: Bettering House - Philadelphia Almshouse Media Type: Engravings Source: Print and Picture Collection Notes: Located in Box: Allens Lane Art Center - Arcade Folder: Almshouses Almshouse built 1766-67 between Spruce & Pine Streets and 10th & 11th Streets. Served as the new home of the Philadelphia Almshouse previously located at 3rd, 4th, Spruce & Pine Streets.

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If a person was poor and had no home or no family they only had themself to rely on, where Almhouses were formed to house, feed, and care for them, (Keeling et al., 2017).

The food at these almhouses was not nutritious to help with healing and meet adequate nutritional needs for growth, it was noted that some inmates were forced to forage and cook their own food, (Keeling et al., 2017).

The almhouses were crowded and filthy, causing more illnesses. To make matters worse in the spread of illness and diseases, sometimes the dead were left for days where they fell before authorities came to remove the bodies. While this noble effort of creating Almhouses only created more problems it paved the way for the Pennsylvania Hospital and an establismnet for the mentally ill, (Keeling et al., 2017).

Now instead of mentaly ill clinics that we know of today these started out as holding cells for the mentally ill with no attempt to cure them. The mentally ill were isolated in a room with barred windows and an iron ring on the wall to chain patient’s by the wrist or ankle and were provided a mattress and a chamber pot, (Keeling et al., 2017).

The hospital provided care for the “deserving poor” who were “able” to be cured, omitting the existence of palliative care that we know today, (Keeling et al., 2017).

Treatment included: physical restraint, water treatment, bleeding, and blistering, (Keeling et al., 2017). 1836 was the year treatments such as these would be removed and and a new approach of moral treatment initiated to the mentall ill along with work therapy and leisure activity, (Keeling et al., 2017). This was the beginning of positive approach of treatments.

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The Public Hospital of 1773 at Colonial Williamsburg

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Dr. Edward Jenner vaccinates his child against smallpox.

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With women being the primary caregiver at home for illness and ailments upper/middle-class wives and women opened their homes to soldiers under inoculation of smallpox and wounded from battle, (Keeling et al., 2017).

The sick and injured were: fed, had medications administered, had laundry service, and had their hygiene attended to by the women of the house, (Keeling et al., 2017).

As time progressed and advancements were made, medical care transitioned from the church to the beliefs of the founding fathers of Enlightenment which is reason and individualism rather than tradition, which lead to liberty, equality, and justice for the general welfare, (Keeling et al., 2017). This thinking of general welfare leads to the idea of preventative measures for diseases with the use of vaccines, nutrition, and physical activity, (Keeling et al., 2017).

This led to leaders family members, slaves, employees, and the military being inoculated for smallpox as a preventative for the population to be healthy to be productive to continued success, (Keeling et al., 2017). Resulting in primary care today in preventative measures to reduce or eliminate chronic illness.

Women not only provide care in their homes but some travel to provide direct care to patients and provide directions and education for a family members to treat their ill members, (Keeling et al., 2017). This continues today when nurses educate family members to continue care outside of hospitals.

The rich could afford to get the opinion and care from physicians and surgeons. With that being said the Ladies Benevolent Society in Charelston offered care to anyone who was not a slave and did not fall under the qualification of the almshouses both acute and chronic illnesses of all races, (Keeling et al., 2017).

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(ca. 1884). Bettering House - Philadelphia Almshouse. [Engravings]. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/44190

ColonialWilliamsburg. (2015, August 28). The Public Hospital of 1773 at Colonial Williamsburg. YouTube. [Video].  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LsZ60FQCA

Keeling, A., Kirchgessner, J., Hehman, M. (2017). History of Professional Nursing in the United States : Toward a Culture of Health. Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/triton/detail.action?docID=4941962

Mayo Clinic. (1998). History of smallpox: Outbreaks and vaccine timeline. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/history-disease-outbreaks-vaccine-timeline/smallpox