In the beginning of its excerpt on Sims, the book details how he would blame the wrong parties for diseases and infections, such as neonatal tetanus. Neonatal tetanus is a bacterial disease which is caused by animal manure and it grows in wounds such as umbilical stumps. Instead of blaming the slave owners for not providing proper and clean living areas for these slaves to live in, Sims blamed slave women's supposed laziness as the cause of their diseases.