Medical Appropriation in the 'Red' Atlantic: Translating a Mi'kmaq

1 Medical Appropriation in the ‘Red’ Atlantic: Translating a Mi’kmaq smallpox cure in the mid-nineteenth century Farrah Lawrence-Mackey University College London Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History and Philosophy of Science Department of Science and Technology Studies 2018 2 I, Farrah Mary Lawrence-Mackey confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 ABSTRACT This thesis answers the questions of what was travelling, how, and why, when a Kanien’kehaka woman living amongst the Mi’kmaq at Shubenacadie sold a remedy for smallpox to British and Haligonian colonisers in 1861. I trace the movement of the plant (known as: Mqo’oqewi’k, Indian Remedy, Sarracenia purpurea, and Limonio congener) and knowledges of its use from Britain back across the Atlantic. In exploring how this remedy travelled, why at this time and what contexts were included with the plant’s removal I show that rising scientific racism in the nineteenth century did not mean that Indigenous medical flora and knowledge were dismissed wholesale, as scholars like Londa Schiebinger have suggested. Instead conceptions of indigeneity were fluid, often lending authority to appropriated flora and knowledge while the contexts of nineteenth-century Britain, Halifax and Shubenacadie created the Sarracenia purpurea, Indian Remedy and Mqo’oqewi’k as it moved through and between these spaces. Traditional accounts of bio-prospecting argue that as Indigenous flora moved, Indigenous contexts were consistently stripped away. This process of stripping shapes Indigenous origins as essentialised and static. Following the plant backward to its apparent point of origin highlights the more complex reality. This work is undertaken within the broader framework of ‘Red’ Atlantic history, that seeks to bring complex Indigenous histories into broader accounts of medicine in the Atlantic World. I will highlight that the ‘Red’ Atlantic approach, when undertaken by non- Indigenous historians, requires recognition and honesty about of the historian’s own position. This is not Indigenous history. Due to the constraints of distance, time and funding I was unable to obtain testimonies from current members of the Mi’kmaq community. Histories that do not include this important resource, from oral historical cultures, cannot claim to be Indigenous histories. Though revisionist, my work is informed by my position as a white woman educated in western academia therefore it remains “American Indian history largely from the white perspective.”1 1 Angela Cavender Wilson, “Indian History or Non-Indian Perceptions of American Indian History,” American Indian Quarterly 20, no. 1 (1996): 5 4 IMPACT STATEMENT This work will extend the frameworks of scholars such as Londa Schiebinger and Susan Scott Parrish who have discussed fluid conceptions of indigeneity that lent authority to appropriations of medical knowledge and flora from the Americas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I argue that despite the growing racism and chauvinism of the nineteenth century there was a continuity in white conceptions of indigeneity that lent authority to Indigenous medicines and knowledge as part of sustained appropriative behaviours. I argue that it is important to recognise this continuity in appropriative practices, as if we allow for a view that racism leads to the wholesale rejection of Indigenous knowledges and flora then we can dismiss similar practices in the modern age. In addition, my work will contribute to developing scholarship in the ‘Red’ Atlantic, so called by Jace Weaver. This is not Indigenous history, due to my inability to gain interviews with Mi’kmaq communities and my own position as a white woman educated in western academic institutions. However, this does not mean that it lacks value. Instead I seek to highlight the importance of including Indigenous history as part of broader histories of medicine and the Atlantic. As far as possible this should be done with an eye to one’s own position within the power structures of colonialism and appropriation outlined here. This is a particularly significant matter with regard to Canadian history. Canada, as a nation, projects a liberal and inclusive attitude. However, the numbers of First Nations peoples living in poverty, poor attitudes amongst Canadian non-Indigenous populations toward First Nations populations, suicide rates within the Indigenous population and the rate of Indigenous women murdered, to name a few significant and ongoing issues, means that recognising racism as not just a process of ignoring but an active process of oppression and appropriation, is valuable. Beyond the historiographic and potential social impact of my work, conducting this research has had an important impact on my own views in the history of science. It has led, in part, to work that I am undertaking with colleagues on revising history of science curricula with the production of a decolonised source book for survey courses in the history of science. Reassessing the way that history of science is taught at undergraduate level is an important step in bringing histories of underrepresented communities, such as the Mi’kmaq of this study, into broader histories of the Atlantic world and beyond. 5 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 Previous Accounts of the Curative 15 Medical Appropriations in the ‘Red’ Atlantic 16 Is ’Red’ Atlantic history Indigenous History? 28 Chapter Outlines and Structure 32 Chapter One: Sarracenia purpurea in Europe before 1861 Introduction 38 Limonio Congener 1600-1700: Decontextualising flora in Systematic Botany 39 Sarracenia Purpurea 1700-1861: Aesthetics and Horticulture 51 Conclusions 61 Chapter Two: Sarracenia purpurea in Britain from 1861 Introduction 63 Mr Herbert Chalmer Miles: Translating Sarracenia purpurea 65 Dr Cosmo Gordon Logie: The Problem of Vaccination 80 Captain Campbell Hardy: Closer to the Point of Appropriation 90 6 Conclusions 98 Chapter Three: Between Nova Scotia and Britain Introduction 100 Out of the Loop: The Royal Artillery in Halifax 103 Transporting the Sarracenia purpurea: Availability Facilitating and Stemming Use 114 Conclusions 119 Chapter Four: The Indian Remedy in Halifax Introduction 120 Concepts of Indigeneity in Halifax: Racism and Paternalism 121 A Confined Space: Medical Elite Hierarchies and Public Health Concerns 132 What is Orthodox Practice? Policing Boundaries and Medicine as Science 143 Success as a Patent Curative: The Afterlife of the Indian Remedy in Halifax 156 Conclusions 161 Chapter Five: Facing East: Mqo’oqewi’k at Shubenacadie and Beyond Introduction 162 Mqo’oqewi’k in North Eastern Canada: 7 Active Medical Networks 165 Mqo’oqewi’k in Smallpox: Innovation in the St Lawrence Valley 169 Finding Sally Paul: Mi’kmaq and Kanien’kehaka Medicine 171 Selling a Smallpox Cure: Secrecy, Resistance and Cooperation 186 Conclusions 194 Conclusion 196 Bibliography 203 Appendix 234 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank Prof. Joe Cain and Dr. David Sim for all of their hard work as my supervisors. They have both provided invaluable insights and asked the difficult questions that have shaped this thesis. I have been privileged to have their expertise and support during this project. Second, I want to thank Dr Chiara Ambrosio and Dr Phyllis Illari who have both been so supportive and encouraging throughout, especially when I lost my primary supervisor. There are so many people at UCL STS that have helped me through the highs and lows of this process, particularly the ‘smart grlz’ Becky, Kat, Sadie, Claudia, Erika, Hattie, and Martina, as well as Liz, Julia, Erman, Ed, Ellie, Jacob, Alex, and Ben, and everyone else who I have had coffees, beers and chats with, helping me think of new ways of tackling my problems, both in work and life. I want to specifically say thanks to Hannah, we went through these last months hand in hand and I wouldn’t have got to the end without you. I have had so much help along the way, and want to say thank you to Andrew Wear, Ruth Whitehead, Djedi Lantz, Diane Chisholm, Alan Marble, and everyone at Nova Scotia Archives especially Gary Shutlak and Joel Zemel. I also want to thank the staff at Killam Library at Dalhousie including Michael Moosberger and Diane Landry, and the amazing Linda Evans at the Celesio archives, as well as Alicia Colson, and the women of WIASN and staff at Coldharbour Library. I have only been able to complete this thesis because of the work I was able to do for Dyrham Park National Trust, PLP(LLP) Solicitors, UCL STS, and the Science Museum, so thank you. I have also managed this because of the support of my friends, I can’t name you all, but you know who you are and how you have helped me. I want to say thank you to Lucy for the coffee, Hannah for the hugs and Holly for the whatsapp encouragement and all three of you for the love. I also want to thank my aunt Marion, UCL alumna and translator of French, you are amazing. Most importantly I want to thank my Mum and Dad, and sisters Tasha and Maddy, who dealt with my commas and apostrophes, asked me questions and provided so much support this would have been incomprehensible and impossible without you. 9 Finally, my husband Tom, it’s been a difficult road at times, but you have pushed me and believed in me throughout. To everyone who helped, in all your unique ways, this is as much yours as it is mine. 10 INTRODUCTION My thesis presents a case study of

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