Leslie uses the social and cultural history of Civil War medicine and science to probe the question of how and why anti-Black racism survived the destruction of slavery. Leslie's talk will describe how white Northerners—the U.S. Sanitary Commission and Army medical personnel—conducted wartime research aimed at proving Black medical and biological inferiority. She argues that this research not only led to the mistreatment of Black soldiers and civilians, it also promoted the notion of white authority about racial science and medicine.

Leslie Schwalm is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of History and Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies.

~ Sponsored by the Emeritus Faculty Council ~