“Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i

“Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i

<p>This article considers the 1884 criminal case and medical archive of Keanu, a Native Hawaiian prisoner sentenced to death in the Hawaiian courts for murder. Keanu’s sentence was commuted to “life in prison” after he consented to experimental leprosy (Hansen’s disease) inoculations. The arti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christopher Perreira
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eScholarship Publishing, University of California 2017-10-01
Series:Journal of Transnational American Studies
Subjects:
prisoner–patients
hawai'i
nineteenth century transnational medicine
leprosy
empire
Online Access:http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mp7p2dv
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spelling doaj-0c083c78d4784077a89e604bcb4819d52020-12-15T08:16:47ZengeScholarship Publishing, University of CaliforniaJournal of Transnational American Studies1940-07642017-10-0181ark:13030/qt3mp7p2dv“Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘iChristopher Perreira0University of Kansas<p>This article considers the 1884 criminal case and medical archive of Keanu, a Native Hawaiian prisoner sentenced to death in the Hawaiian courts for murder. Keanu’s sentence was commuted to “life in prison” after he consented to experimental leprosy (Hansen’s disease) inoculations. The article examines the tensions between Keanu’s prisoner–patient value and US imperialism as a discourse of social debt in nineteenth-century Hawai‘i. It argues that the figure of the prisoner–patient raises broad questions about the historical function of racialization, criminalization, and disease across medical discourse at that time. More specifically, it interrogates how those discourses were constructed around the figure of Keanu and reveals a transformation in his status from devalued social death to that of valuable social debt.</p>http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mp7p2dvprisoner–patientshawai'inineteenth century transnational medicineleprosyempire
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Christopher Perreira
spellingShingle Christopher Perreira
“Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
Journal of Transnational American Studies
prisoner–patients
hawai'i
nineteenth century transnational medicine
leprosy
empire
author_facet Christopher Perreira
author_sort Christopher Perreira
title “Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
title_short “Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
title_full “Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
title_fullStr “Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
title_full_unstemmed “Suppose for a moment, that Keanu had reasoned thus”: Contagious Debts and Prisoner–Patient Consent in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i
title_sort “suppose for a moment, that keanu had reasoned thus”: contagious debts and prisoner–patient consent in nineteenth-century hawai‘i
publisher eScholarship Publishing, University of California
series Journal of Transnational American Studies
issn 1940-0764
publishDate 2017-10-01
description <p>This article considers the 1884 criminal case and medical archive of Keanu, a Native Hawaiian prisoner sentenced to death in the Hawaiian courts for murder. Keanu’s sentence was commuted to “life in prison” after he consented to experimental leprosy (Hansen’s disease) inoculations. The article examines the tensions between Keanu’s prisoner–patient value and US imperialism as a discourse of social debt in nineteenth-century Hawai‘i. It argues that the figure of the prisoner–patient raises broad questions about the historical function of racialization, criminalization, and disease across medical discourse at that time. More specifically, it interrogates how those discourses were constructed around the figure of Keanu and reveals a transformation in his status from devalued social death to that of valuable social debt.</p>
topic prisoner–patients
hawai'i
nineteenth century transnational medicine
leprosy
empire
url http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mp7p2dv
work_keys_str_mv AT christopherperreira supposeforamomentthatkeanuhadreasonedthuscontagiousdebtsandprisonerpatientconsentinnineteenthcenturyhawaii
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