Based on evidence found in plantation logs and other sources it is clear that many disabled slaves were devalued and subject to neglect, various other forms of abuse, and murder (Boster). Many slaves that were considered disabled were sold so that their slaveholders wouldn't have to deal with taking care of them as they got older (Boster). In other situations, certain disabled slaves were left alone in a room somewhere without clothes and left to fend for themselves.  They were kept away from the slave community and other slaveholders. The fact is that if a slave was disabled they were still expected to work, and some slaves that weren't disabled would become disabled through horrific experiences and the work they were expected to carry out. 

     Though it was technically illegal to murder a slave, there were cases where slaveholder's shirked responsibility and murdered disabled slaves for their disabilities. (Boster). Disabilities tended to be viewed through an economic lens rather than a human lens. For example, a slaveholder may worry about the effect a disability would have on a slave's worth as property.

"The study of emancipation has often been closely related to the question of labor, in particular freed slaves' ability and willingness to work," says Jim Downs an assistant professor of history at Connecticut College. Therefore. when we look at what happened to many disabled slaves who were deemed unable to work, it forces us to think of the process of emancipation and how freedom was defined (Downs). Freedom depended on one's ability and potential to work (Downs). 

The fact is that many disabled slaves continued to live on plantations. They were separated from able-bodied family members, and were placed back into situations where former master's still held control, power, and authority over them (Downs). For these people, slavery didn't end. In some cases, these people had limited mobility which was another key aspect of defining freedom. Jim Downs further argues that as a result of all of this emancipation has become a history of "able-bodied" freed slaves had difficulty escaping the southern plantations. 

When reading about slavery today, it seems that the stories of disabled slaves often get buried and forgotten. If you take the time to do a little digging though, there is some information on the realities of being a disabled slave both during slavery and during emancipation. It's important that we do this digging too. Why? Because understanding where  we've been gives useful context to understanding where we currently are, and where we may be going.  Disabled slaves have largely been neglected throughout history, but it's important that lawmakers understand the problems of the past when they are designing legislation that is supposed to remedy that past. (Thompson 2021). 

Like Jim Downs says in his piece on Continued Slavery, learning about the neglected history of disabled slaves complicates how we have traditionally viewed emancipation and freedom.  Why do you think this history is so difficult to learn about? Is it because of the lack of information? Why do we lack this information? Why do you think this information is still important today?

I think what is particularly interesting and still relevant today is the intersection of race and disability status. "In the United States, 50 percent of people killed by law enforcement are disabled, and more than half of disabled African Americans have been arrested by the time they turn 28—double the risk in comparison to their white disabled counterparts (Thompson 2021)." Racism and ableism are tied closely together in discussions of police violence (Thompson 2021). Law enforcement has a history of wanting compliance over understanding individual disabilities. One example, is a person's inability to hear an officer's demands is often read as someone being difficult (Thompson 2021). Furthermore, law enforcement has also been known to deny or remove accommodations for disabled people. It seems that the poor treatment of disabled slaves is reflected in the way disabled people of color are treated by law enforcement today. 

 The Continuation of Slavery: The Experience of Disabled Slaves During Emancipation by Jim Downs https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/112/112

“Useless”: Disability, Slave Labor, and Contradiction on Antebellum Southern Plantations https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/58499/1/391.pdf

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/understanding-policing-black-disabled-bodies/

https://www.respectability.org/2018/02/harriet-tubman-legendary-poet-civil-rights-activist-epilepsy-inspires-generations/#:~:text=Her%20mission%20was%20getting%20as,developing%20epileptic%20seizures%20and%20hypersomnia.

Further Reading

African American Slavery and Disability: Bodies, Property and Power in the Antebellum South, 1800-1860 by Dea H. Boster