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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Dr. Samuel Cartwright of Louisiana was an expert in the medical care of black slaves. In an 1851 book, he identified two "mental diseases" which were peculiar to slaves: Drapetomia -- the irrational and persistent desire to run away -- and Dysaethesia Aethiopica, also known as Rascality -- typified by destroying property on the plantation, being disobedient, talking back, fighting with masters, and refusing to work. Dr. Cartwright prescribed whipping as the primary cure for both mental disorders. http://academic.udayton.edu/health/01status/mental01.htm
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
You gotta love the wonderful science of psychology, today as in the 1850s. I wish someone would do a study of why such weird creatures end up practising psychology and make up some names for that. Oh wait, the subject of psychology *is the mental illness. Now we're getting somwhere;-)
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
women use to be prone to hysteria-- you know the idea that they could think for themselves, make decisions, and be responsible for themselves, manage their own money and lives.
the 'cure' was confinement--usually they were locked up in their own houses,deprived of all access to money and outsiders. (or if poor, confined to mental hospitals till they got over the idea that they were capable of independant thought and action.)
the men in their lives did this to protect them from thinking--(the 'cause' of hysteria.)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Rascality--sheesh. Though I have little doubt that 150 years from now they'll look back at some things we believe in, and think, "How unenlightened!"
As to women: I am maybe a quarter of the way into a book called "Maharanis", by Lucy Moore. It's about how four independent-minded women in India helped change society and eventually the nation there in the early part of the 1900's. I'm having a hard time with all the strange-to-me names, but it's quite interesting. One of the things I learned was about purdah: up until that time, it was forbidden for wives (at least the maharajahs' wives) to be seen by any man other than their husband, so they and their maidservants and children were kept in a separate part of the palace, and curtains were hung or held up to screen them from view on the rare occasions they went out. Women were seen pretty much as breeders only, which is why at least the powerful men often had several wives. The book also said that it was fairly common for girl babies to be murdered.
One of the things I note about this book, and most historical English novels is that, while I enjoy getting insight into how some of the people lived in earlier times, there really don't seem to be many that tell the story of people who lived as servants. While I now know a lot more about life in India then than I did before I started the book, I couldn't help but notice some of the descriptions the author put in from, for ex., English visitors to the palaces. A...priest or vicar, I think, had met one of the families when they'd gone to Europe, and later took up their invitation to come visit. This man absolutely rhapsodized about the country, how exotic and beautiful and wonderful it was. He'd been met by the Maharajah's private train which had, among other accoutrements, "solid silver door handles" and electric fans. (Oh, yes--one of the maharanis had two servants who took turns fanning her.) When the visitor and his host (not hostess) went out for a walk, six servants walked behind them, carrying everything they anticipated either of the men might need--including the maharajah's jeweled turban. When the two men went out horseback riding one morning, they came to the designated picnic spot, where a full meal was spread ready for them--plus a tent had been put up, with a bed in it, in case the maharajah wanted to nap after dining.
What I want to know is what the vicar's impression would have been had he been visiting one of the servants. What kind of life was it, for them, having to get all that stuff prepared and in place? Did they have to carry it all? If they used ox-carts, did they have to make sure to get that out of sight--and clean up any droppings--before the maharajah got there? Did they resent, ever, having to get things ready "just in case"--things which may or may not have proven to be needed? I mean, those people were just as real as their bosses--or should I say masters? Did they get paid a salary, I wonder? Some of the authors I've read seemed to want the reader to believe that this kind of service was provided out of sheer devotion--but I wonder. I wonder.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
As you are noticing, Jackie, history is written by the victorious. Victory can be in holding the wealth and power as well as in military conquest. Plus, the people who were literate enough and had the luxury to read and write were the wealthy. The servant and slave classes didn't have the time, the ability or the power to publish, and their stories are not well told.
You can get a taste of lower-class life in civil war letters, but it is hard to work through the spellings.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
its a curious thing--life as servant was no doubt brutal--hard work and very little reward (and factory work, in the industrial revolution was hard, brutal work too) but people flocked to it.
today, in most industrial countries, the most dangerous work to be in, (usually) is mining--followed closely by farming.
farming is hard dangerous work, modern day farm subsidies mean farmer usually don't starve or go bankrupt, but no one (almost no one) want to stay on the farm--almost everyone realizes, there are easier safer ways to live.
Iowa keeps losing population.. kids go off to a small town like Ames (ISU) and they don't want to go back to the even smaller town they grew up in, but off to bigger and better cities.
Cities (and city/states) are were culture (civilization) started--and no matter how bad it is being a slave, and getting up 3 hours earlier than the maharaja, i suspect for many it was better than eking out a bare subsistance back home on the farm.
NYC's sea port museum show 'typical' sailors bunks, and has a film, (made in the 1930's) of a masted/steam (steam and sail) ship caught in a storm--its scary to watch.. but men went to the sea to escape life on the farm.. and thought themselves lucky to be able to do so.
i suspect 3rd or 4th generation cast of silk sari's (1/2 or even 1/4th the size of the original) were still better than smaller, coarser cotton ones.. and sleeping on stone floor sounds less than idilic, but its better than a mud one with a leaking thatched roof above during the rainy season.
V.S.Napaul, (a bend in the river, i think) has one character (an owner) complaining that he has tried to 'free' his slaves--but they won't leave the house! they stay, doing a little work (and eating him out of house and home)
Slavery is not a good thing, but its sometimes a better life than farming! in many cultures, slavery is not indefinate, (its for a term, either the life of the owner, 50 years, or just one generation) and people who have choices, sometimes chose 'lifetime indentured servant' (something seen as slavery) as a choice. Not one i would make, but.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>most dangerous job< I beg to differ on this one, ot, because I know, living here in Cape May, NJ, one of the nation's largest commercial fishery seaports in the country, that commercial fisherman is usually ranked as the most dangerous job today...however, this list demotes it to second with #1 claimed by...lumberjack: >Who Has the Most Dangerous Job? We all have an impression of what constitutes a dangerous job. Usually we base our feelings on three types of information. First, what we actually experience, since we all face various hazards during our daily tasks. Second, we all read and watch news accounts of mishaps. Third, we see different lists, charts and graphs that depict who gets killed and how frequently. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released one snapshot, based on 2002 data of on-the-job fatalities per 100,000 workers. The verdict: people who cut down trees, with a rate of 118 deaths per 100,000 workers. This is more than 26 times the average of all workers. Commercial fishermen were second, with 71 deaths per 100K workers (drowning was the most common cause). Commercial pilots were third (70 per 100K, with most of the deaths in general aviation, with bush pilots, air-taxi pilots and crop-dusters producing spikes in the data far higher than the rate for airline pilots). Structural-metal workers-such as the people who build skyscrapers and bridges-were fourth, with a rate of 58 per 100K. And fifth on the list were sales personnel who drive as a main part of their job (such as pizza delivery or servicing vending machines), with traffic wrecks, robberies and assaults as major factors. The occupation with the highest total number of deaths-truck drivers, with 808-had a rate of 25 per 100K. For the record, the Navy rate for on-duty deaths is 9.37, and the Marine Corps rate is 21.75. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Fatality rates have a variety of limitations and are not the only method of measuring risks on the job. Other measures available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics include information on occupations with large numbers of fatal and non-fatal injuries, as well as incidence rates for non-fatal injuries. Visit their web site at http://www.bls.gov/iif/home.htm for more information.<
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 124
member
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member
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 124 |
I'll have to check out the site, but I know I read recently in the paper that firemen had one of the highest death rates.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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well like any list/statistic, you can define 'industrialize jobs' or 'civil service' or skilled jobs--and different catagories come floating to the top.
open face mining has different hazzards than pit mining, and small fishing operations, (like small farms) are much more labor intensive and dangerous than corporate 'fish farming'-- or corporate farms that are likely to be more automated.
(and one wonders about undocumented workers on farms. are they covered by disability insurance? or are their injuries just unreported?)
there are many rough jobs for the uneducated. (indoor work in a maharaja's palace might not have been fullfilling or pleasant, but i suspect it generally was less dangerous.)
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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In a province dominated by logging, mining and fishing the last numbers I have heard from the Worker's Compensation Board showed that about 50% of all claims (on the job, non-fatal injuries) were from nurses.
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