Peruvian Bark and Turlington's Balsam: Uncovering the Medical History of the Enslaved at Schuyler Mansion

17th century Colonial personification
of Peru offering Cinchona to Science.
Cinchona became a staple medicinal
resource for European colonial
empires for a nearly 300 years.

On a bitterly cold February day in 1776, a man named Prince sat in a freezing cell in Albany, preparing a letter to Catharine Schuyler as frostbite gnawed at his feet. In this letter, Prince described his situation, reporting that he had “quite lost the use of my limbs with cold” after a forced march from Canada over the preceding winter. Prince was eventually purchased by the Schuyler family, but staff at Schuyler Mansion have often wondered about the long-term impact of that winter imprisonment on Prince’s health. Was he fortunate enough to make a full recovery? Or, more likely, did the harm he endured affect his health and mobility for the rest of his life?

While Prince’s letter is a vivid, personal statement about his situation in February of 1776, evidence about his later condition can be found in a far more mundane source: a medical bill from Dr. Samuel Stringer for treatments rendered to members of the Schuyler family and household between January and December of 1787.[1] During that year, Prince was among the ten enslaved servants mentioned, and was treated at least five times between January and June.  Most of the medicines described included some variety of either “Peruvian Bark” (Cinchona) , “Balsam of Peru” (Myroxylon pereirae), or both. Both were often prescribed for fevers or as an antidote to ingested poisons, but were noted as effective treatments for joint pain and rashes.[2] Furthermore, after prescribing these medicines on February 12^th, Dr. Stringer charged £4 on April 29^th for “dressing Princes [sic] leg from the 12^th Feb to this day inclusive.” While we may never know if this was an isolated flair of leg pain, or a documented glimpse of a more chronic disability, receipts like this allow us shed important light on the medical history of other people enslaved by the Schuylers as well, by examining their recorded symptoms and the treatments they received. For example, a man named Dick is mentioned three times in the same receipt, each time having received the exact same treatment—a bottle of Turlington’s Balsam at a cost of 8 shillings.

Peru Balsam 

Robert Turlington patented his “Balsam of Life” in 1744.[3] Despite having no documentable medical experience, he insisted that his medicine treated a wide range of conditions, including kidney issues and “inward weaknesses” or ruptures (what we would today call hernias). While Turlington’s Balsam was supposedly a near-miraculous cure-all, Dr. Stringer almost certainly prescribed it to Dick for chronic hernias (likely the result of decades of constant heavy-lifting as a cartman for the Schuylers). Dick had dealt with hernias for at least four years at that point, as evidenced by a 1783 letter from Philip Schuyler to Stephan Van Rensselaer in which Schuyler wrote “Be so good as to advise me if Dick is likely soon to be better of the rupture which troubles him.”[4] While a popular treatment, there is little evidence of the efficacy of Turlington’s Balsam, and there are currently no identified references to Dick after November 19^th of 1787.

Several other enslaved men besides Prince and Dick are mentioned in Dr. Stringer’s receipt: Peter, Jacob, Cato, and Jim. Like Dick, these men are all documented as driving carts and hauling supplies for the Schuyler family. They would have worked long hours with heavy loads in all sorts of weather, and this labor is reflected in the medical treatments they received. Jacob, Peter, and Cato were all prescribed something that Dr. Stringer recorded as “Linam: Sapon”, most likely liniment sapo[5], a compound of soap and camphor considered useful in treating joint pain and spasms, as well as blisters and sunburns. Jim was likewise treated with a zinc and castor compound, used to this day to treat rashes, skin abrasions, and burned or heavily chapped skin.

It is important to note how infrequently these men were treated for the myriad fevers, agues, and other illnesses that the Schuyler family received care for. While they certainly would have contracted those with the same frequency as any other individual of their time period, Philip Schuyler was far more likely to lay out money to treat the leg and joint injuries, saddle-rashes, and hernias caused by their labor— the injuries which stood to reduce the amount of profitable labor he could extract from them.

Turlington's Balsam of Life bottles as
represented in a brochure dated 1755–1757.

The receipt also mentions two women enslaved by the Schuylers: Moll and Britt. While we have not yet been able to determine what Moll’s treatment was (or what condition it was intended to treat), Britt was prescribed the same liniment sapo as the cartmen, as well as camphor gum (similarly used to treat spasms and joint pain).[6] As women’s work in the period tended toward repetitive movements and joint strain with tasks like cooking, hauling water and firewood, sewing and textile production, and childcare, this may reflect treatment for repetitive motion injuries. However, it is also possible that Britt’s treatment was due to complications during pregnancy. In addition to the camphor soap and gum, on April 17^th, 1787, Britt was prescribed ginger, which folk tradition has long held can help induce labor. Shortly after, on June 16^th, Dr. Stringer charged the Schuyler family 2 shillings for providing magnesia alba (a stomach soothing antacid popular for infants)[7] to “Britts child”! He would provide the same again on September 18^th of the same year.[8]

While Britt may have received her medical attention from Dr. Stringer, the Schuyler family’s personal physician, other women enslaved by the Schuylers would have tended to their own obstetric care or relied on the care of other women. These may have been trained midwives, or simply other women with only their own or relatives’ experience to guide them.  In 1768, the Schuylers credited a “Miss Van Den Werken” one pound, three shillings at their store for “…taking care of Hannah the Wench when in labour”.[9]

Dr. Stringer was not the only doctor to provide medical treatment for the enslaved servants of the Schuyler family. Between August of 1757 and August of 1764, Dr. Henry Van Dyke was called upon to provide medical care for two unnamed servants, a man and woman, bound to the Schuylers.[10] The woman was treated with unspecified medicines between the 26^th of August and the 12^th of September, while the following February the unnamed man required “dressing and salve” for his leg. In August of 1764, Dr. Van Dyke treated an enslaved man named Mink by “bleeding & a dose of Physic”, likely for a fever or inflammation.

While none of their receipt descriptions paints a full picture by itself, the details revealed add dimension and depth to our understanding of the lives of the men, women, and children enslaved by the Schuylers. Placed in the context of what else we are learning about the enslaved, the terse lines of numbers and medical abbreviations allows us to envision Jim and Peter rubbing camphor soaps onto aching joints after a long day of transporting hay and apples for Philip Schuyler, talking about Jim’s plan to buy his freedom and move his family to Easton, while Britt soothes her little one’s upset stomach with a dose of magnesia alba.

Follow our continuing efforts to uncover the lives of the nearly seventy individuals enslaved at Schuyler Mansion here on this blog, and through our social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

 

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[1] Receipt for Medical Services from Dr. Samuel Stringer to Philip Schuyler, Schuyler Papers, NYPL, Reel 2, Box 3.

[2] Glossary of Drugs Prescribed or Dispensed in Colonial New England  https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1218

[3] Jones, Olive and Vegotsky, Allen (2016) "Turlington’s Balsam of Life," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 45 45, Article 1. https://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol45/iss1/1

[4] Philip Schuyler to Stephan VR, July 10, 1783. Slavery and Enslaved People at Schuyler Mansion

[5] Glossary of Drugs Prescribed or Dispensed in Colonial New England  https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1218

[6] Glossary of Drugs Prescribed or Dispensed in Colonial New England  https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1218

[7] Glossary of Drugs Prescribed or Dispensed in Colonial New England  https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1218

[8] Receipt for Medical Services from Dr. Samuel Stringer to Philip Schuyler, Schuyler Papers, NYPL, Reel 2, Box 3.

[9] Philip Schuyler Saratoga Daybook 1764-1770, NYHS.

[10] Receipt for Medical Services from Dr. Henry Van Dyke to Philip Schuyler 1755-1764, Sleepy Hollow Restoration, S-966.