Medical Encounters: Knowledge and Identity in Early American Literatures

Table of Contents

vii contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Epidemic, Encounter, and Colonial Promotion in Virginia 37 2. Healing, Medical Authority, and Moral Degeneration in New England 66 3. African Testimony, Dangerous Communications, and Colonial Medical Knowledge in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy 97 4. Obeah, Slave Revolt, and Plantation Medicine in the British West Indies 127 5. Drunkenness, Syphilis, and History in Samson Occom’s Medical Writing 161 Conclusion 197 Notes 207 Index 255 “This page intentionally left blank” ...