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Lead Contact and Poisoning in Barbados Slaves: Historical, Chemical, and Biological Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Jerome S. Handler ,
Arthur C. Aufderheide ,
Robert S. Corruccini ,
Elizabeth M. Brandon  and
Lorentz E. Wittmers Jr.
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Extract

Lead contact and lead poisoning have received scant attention in discussions of early West Indian societies but are potentially important issues in considering the health and medical problems of blacks. Although our discussion focuses on Barbados, the West Indian historical literature strongly suggests that our general findings are applicable to other Caribbean areas and have implications for understanding some of the disabilities of early white populations as well. In this paper we also seek to illustrate how bioanthropological and chemical analyses of slave skeletal remains and historical data can complement one another in defining and investigating various dimensions of slave life.

Type
The Biological Past of the Black
Information
Social Science History , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 1986 , pp. 399 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1986 

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