Rush- an Account of a Negro Physician

Rush's account of James Derham -- a formerly enslaved physician who had purchased his freedom and established a practice in New Orleans -- is an antislavery argument made through the example of individual excellence rather than abstract principle. Rush met Derham in Philadelphia and was struck by the quality of his medical knowledge. The account documented Derham's achievement for a white readership that might find such excellence surprising, and implicitly argued against the racial hierarchies that slavery required and produced. The pamphlet connects directly to the context of the 1793 epidemic, during which the free Black community's nursing and burial work would be both crucial and subsequently misrepresented by Matthew Carey.

From Catalog II

Rush's account of James Derham -- a formerly enslaved physician who had purchased his freedom and established a practice in New Orleans -- is an antislavery argument made through the example of individual excellence rather than abstract principle. Rush met Derham in Philadelphia and was struck by the quality of his medical knowledge. The account documented Derham's achievement for a white readership that might find such excellence surprising, and implicitly argued against the racial hierarchies that slavery required and produced. The pamphlet connects directly to the context of the 1793 epidemic, during which the free Black community's nursing and burial work would be both crucial and subsequently misrepresented by Matthew Carey.