Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France.
Endeavour. 2021 Mar-Jun;45(1-2):100766. doi: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100766. Epub 2021 Apr 1.
To the keen observer of American political and medical history, a disturbing set of debates surrounded the sanity of free Black residents of the United States of America after the publication of the controversial 1840 census returns on race and insanity. This article analyzes how the census became a battlefield where physicians and other commentators fought over-and thus shaped-various political meanings of Black insanity before and after the American Civil War, up until the 1890s, as the South underwent a massive political and social transformation, from slavery to emancipation. It also highlights the arguments raised by authors such as James McCune Smith and Ramón de la Sagra who attempted to disprove the returns shortly after their publication, and whose arguments contributed to efforts to combat scientific racism.
对于关注美国政治和医学历史的人来说，1840 年有争议的种族和精神错乱人口普查结果公布后，美国自由黑人居民的精神是否正常，这引发了一系列令人不安的辩论。本文分析了人口普查如何成为一个战场，在这个战场上，医生和其他评论家在南北战争前后以及 19 世纪 90 年代，南方经历从奴隶制到解放的大规模政治和社会转型期间，就黑人精神错乱的各种政治含义展开了争论，并塑造了这些含义。本文还强调了詹姆斯·麦库恩·史密斯和拉蒙·德拉萨格拉等作者提出的论点，他们在这些结果公布后不久试图反驳这些结果，他们的论点有助于打击科学种族主义。
