Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated by dragging the pointer on the timeline bar, located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile. To filter by a specific topic, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. To learn more, click “Read More” below.

Read More

Josiah Nott argues that Southern climate is ideal for plantation slavery.

1857

MED
EPD
ENV
SRA
SLA

Nott, a white physician in Mobile, Alabama, publishes “Acclimation; or, the Comparative Influence of Climate, Endemic and Epidemic Diseases, on the Races of Men." It will become an influential and popular essay in Southern medical communities. Focusing on the relationship between medicine and climate, he states that bodies work best in their "natural" climates. He uses this theory to explain why "the South was an ideal space for plantation slavery, fit for the occupational health of each race’s role" (Willoughby, 2017).