Introduction. American gynecology and black lives -- The birth of American gynecology -- Black women's experiences in slavery and medicine -- Contested relations: slavery, sex, and medicine -- Irish immigrant women and American gynecology -- Historical black superbodies and the medical gaze -- Afterword.

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Medical Bondage explores how, in the nineteenth century, experimental surgeries on enslaved and laboring women enabled the rise of American gynecology as a medical specialty, and shaped our understanding of race. Merging women's, medical, and social history, the book makes Black and Irish women's lives--not just their bodies--part of an origins story of American medicine (one that has largely been told with an exclusive focus on white male historical actors).

English.

Description based on print version record.