Medische experimenten in de Nederlandse slavenhandel: de casus David Henri Gallandat (1732-1782)

Abstract

This article argues that the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the Dutch Caribbean provided a platform for ambitious surgeons seeking careers in the emerging field of clinical medicine in Europe. By gathering and testing knowledge on and around slave ships in Guinea in Africa, in Suriname, and on the Caribbean islands, surgeons like David Henri Gallandat positioned themselves as experts in the slave trade market. Gallandat and others engaged in cruel medical experiments on enslaved people, and were aware of the unethical aspects of these practices. These surgeons published their findings in the academic journals of European learned societies, such as the Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen that Gallandat helped to establish.