“Syphilis and the American Negro.” He explains that the greater intensity of syphilis in blacks stemmed from the “terrible changes fifty years have wrought”—the physical and moral degeneration of blacks between 1859 and 1909 as a result of their emancipation from slavery. Whereas “by a forced system of hygiene the negro’s body, as a piece of property, was not allowed to deteriorate,” freedom left blacks unprepared to take care of themselves.20
