NEW IBERIA, La. --- Shadows-on-the-Teche is thrilled to welcome historian Christopher D. E. Willoughby for a program on health and medicine in the antebellum period on June 3 at 1 p.m. at the Shadows Visitor Center (320 E. Main Street, New Iberia). 

During this time, enslaved people and enslavers spread further and further West in the Deep South. With them, they brought epidemic diseases like cholera and yellow fever. In Sickness Season: Women, Disease, and Healing in Iberia Parish, Willoughby will examine the diseases that plagued plantations but also the women who treated them. In a period of deep medical distrust, women (both enslaver and enslaved) routinely administered medicines rather than the local doctor.

The program is free to attend and open for all. Sickness Season: Women, Disease, and Healing in Iberia Parish has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

About the Speaker

Christopher D. E. Willoughby is an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2016, he received his PhD in history from Tulane University. He is the author of Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools, which was published last year by the University of North Carolina Press. In 2021 with Sean Morey Smith, he edited the book Medicine and Healing in the Age of Slavery, published by LSU Press. In addition to scholarly articles, he has been published in various popular venues like The Washington Post and AL.com.

About Shadows-on-the-Teche

The Shadows-on-the-Teche, National Trust for Historic Preservation site, opened to the public in 1961 with the mission to preserve the buildings, landscape, collections, and historical integrity of the site; to research and interpret through education programs a 19th century southern Louisiana plantation economy and community and their evolution; and to encourage an appreciation of and interest in historic preservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns and operates the Shadows-on-the-Teche, is a private, non-profit organization. The Shadows does not receive funding from federal, state, parish, or city government. The site supports itself through admissions, special programs and events, and donations to the Friends of the Shadows.

For more information, visit Shadow's Website, contact Jayd Buteaux at (337) 369-6446 or by email.