Yellow Fever Immunities in West Africa and the Americas in the Age of Slavery and Beyond: A Reappraisal

This article is a case study in applied objectivity as understood by mainstream historians. It addresses the problem of disease determinism exemplified by late nineteenth and twentieth century interpretations of the role played by yellow fever in "determining;SPMquot; the ethnic composition of the Caribbean Islands, the American South and the Atlantic coastal zones of Central and South America. In its extreme form yellow fever determinism held that the Christian God created Africans immune to yellow fever, with the intention that they should serve white plantation owners in the New World as slaves. The author--a cultural and medical historian long resident in the Non West--hones in on the disease determinism detected in several works written by Kenneth Kiple and systematically deconstructs Kiple's arguments.