For the Health of the Enslaved: Slaves, Medicine and Power in the Danish West Indies, 1803–1848 (review)

Niklas Thode Jensen’s For the Health of the Enslaved: Slaves, Medicine and Power in the Danish West Indies, 1803–1848 looks at the health conditions of enslaved workers and the measures that the colonial administrators took to improve the health of the slaves in the Danish West Indies in the first half of the nineteenth century. Jensen also compares these topics to their counterparts in the British West Indies and the French Caribbean. Jensen succeeds in filling a tremendous gap in medical history and Caribbean history—namely, the state of health of the enslaved in the Danish West Indies.

One of the major goals of Jensen’s book is to write the history of the health of the enslaved workers in the Danish West Indies. He notes that workload, weather, contaminated water, poor housing, and the lack of adequate footwear and clothing contributed to the poor health that enslaved persons experienced. Specifically, slaves fell victim to the following medical problems: occupational accidents, respiratory diseases, chronic diseases such as elephantiasis, gastrointestinal diseases, and skin conditions.

Jensen also focuses on how colonial administrators dealt with these issues to decrease the high rate of slave mortality. The author employs three case studies that highlight colonial health initiatives. He considers nutrition, smallpox inoculation, and midwifery. In terms of nutrition, Jensen concludes that although administrators mandated a standard food ration, planters still determined the size of provision grounds for the enslaved. Slaves, however, used administrative rules to complain against planters who did not abide by laws and who endangered the nutritional welfare of the enslaved. Jensen shows that the Danish West Indian vaccination program effectively controlled smallpox epidemics among the enslaved. Finally, Jensen describes the Danish West Indian midwifery program, which aimed to train and authorize enslaved midwives on the plantations. The midwifery program did not supplant the power of enslaved midwives who had not been formally trained according to the Danish model.

Jensen incorporates a comparative analysis in his book by contrasting the Danish West Indian situation with the British Caribbean and the French West Indies. Although this effort is commendable, it is not successful and, moreover, not necessary. Multiple times, Jensen acknowledges the lack of comparative source material for certain regions and specific topics. For instance, after analyzing vaccination in the Danish West Indies, he states, “It is difficult to give a coherent picture of how vaccination developed in the British and French West Indies. The evidence is scattered and of uneven quality” (p. 209). The addition of comparative history seems to be an afterthought and likely done at the suggestion of outside readers or the editors. Jensen’s fine medical history of the Danish West Indies, supported with detailed primary source analysis of published, manuscript, and visual archival evidence, was strong enough to stand alone.

Jensen’s fine book will appeal to a variety of readers. Historians of medicine will find an excellent examination of slave health and colonial medicine. Scholars of the Caribbean will welcome this outstanding investigation into the medical world and disease environment of the Danish West Indies. Finally, students of slavery will appreciate Jensen’s investigation into the lives and deaths of enslaved workers in this part of the world.