Dying in the City of the Blues - Reading 1

While reading the introduction of Keith Wailoo's "Dying in the City of the Blues", my attention was drawn to the section "The Cultural Meaning of Disease". I recall earlier in the year discussing the horrid conditions that African Americans were released from slavery into. They had no health care, no place to live and nobody in better situations to even help them - all their families and friends were in the same situation. However, what I did not pick up on in the previous discussions was just how much blame the white southerners placed on the emancipated slaves over their poor health. Prior to being released, the slaves had next to no control over themselves. They did not choose what health care(if any) they received, they did not choose what they ate and they did not choose where they lived. Healthcare, diet and living conditions are arguably the three most important factors to one living a healthy lifestyle. With that being said, how could they be placed at blame for developing diseases? How could their way of living be referred to as "peasant-like" by their previous slave owners when they were the very ones who created that "peasant-like" environment for them. And how could they be placed at blame for not having healthy lifestyles after being released when they were released having no means of access to a healthy life? The book states "Everyone was aware of the ways that factors such as "human nature", diet, morality, innate biology, historical deprivation could be invoked as causes of disease.." with that statement being said, this just further adds to my questions. When the white southerners knew that they were the reason for African Americans not being in the same state as they were, how could they sit there and place blame on anyone other than themselves?