Cost Of Treatment Essay

Often, slave owners have to decide when or if they want to call the physician because of concerns about the cost, which depends on the complexity of the illness and the experience of several physicians (Shaw 1). The cost of treatment is one of many reasons why owners typically did not call the physician right away. If the illness was not serious enough to call the physician, owners will put slaves in “sick houses” for quarantine. Slaves think these “sick houses” are overused because owners would not prefer to call the physician. For example, the charge for a doctor to visit under three miles, is a dollar-fifty plus an additional fifty cents for each mile that is over three. If a slave has to stay overnight, the cost is an additional dollar.

In the Old South, there were only five medical colleges before eighteen forty-five, which also result in preconceived ideas such as, African Americans’ have smaller brains but stronger senses than whites. Manual topics covered several topics, some different than others. Some examples of manual topics include: common illness and cures, fear, grief, hope, instructions for treating serious physical ailments, plants and roots in medical remedies, and some even focused on agriculture and economics to interest planters in medical products. The common illnesses that are included in the manuals are: tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, yellow fever, malaria, worms, yaws (an infection of the skin, bone, and joints), and cholera (Sullivan 17-21). Manuals lead to owners making a lot of their own decisions. Being on their own, often, for medical issues, they use manuals to use remedies or cures. These manuals, where owners make independent decisions towards life or death of their slave, even led to owners overruling the thoughts of the physician (Shaw 1). Manuals create an independent environment for owners for when they need medical assistance. Manuals also give a power to the owners, especially when they have their opinion and physician's’