The notion that African bodies survived in hot, wet tropical climates longer and better than European bodies was a cornerstone of white slaveowners’ thought and practice in the Atlantic world. It justified the disproportionate exposure of enslaved African men, women, and children to unhealthy, disease-ridden, and hazardous living and working conditions. This racist doctrine directly contributed to the premature deaths of millions of Black people.
Although no serious scholar today openly entertains the idea that race has a material basis in human biology, this book makes clear that historical studies of race and environment have far too often taken at face value the biological rationale of white slaveowners. Studies that test immunity of African- and Creole-born populations to yellow fever and malaria over that of new arrivals from Europe are emblematic of this tendency. These studies unwittingly reinforce the spurious logic of biological race, a notion which assumes an almost...