Citation

Jones DS, Podolsky SH, Bannon Kerr M, Hammonds E. New Engl. J. Med. 2023; 389(23): 2117-2123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Massachusetts Medical Society)

DOI

10.1056/NEJMp2307309

PMID

38055250

Abstract

The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Science published its first issue in January 1812. Even though slavery had been abolished in Massachusetts in 1783, its legacies there lingered for decades.1 Slavery remained legal in the United States until 1863 and shaped every aspect of American life, medicine included. The word “slavery” first appeared in the Journal in 1813, in a tribute to Benjamin Rush that highlighted his writings opposing slavery.2 But the Journal’s relationships to slavery and racism were complicated. Its founders’ families had profited from slavery. Its authors wrote casually about slavery. And it provided a prominent forum where physicians perpetuated race hierarchies before and after the Civil War.

It is essential that this complicity be recognized. The Journal’s engagement with slavery illustrates how medical theories, practices, and institutions influenced, and were influenced by, social and political injustices. The effort to reckon with this history must be sincere, deliberate, and persistent.
No single essay can say all that should be said about slavery and medicine, and some condemnable past writings should not be republished. This article is not the last word: it is an invitation to further exploration and intervention. ...

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; *Complicity; *Enslavement