The poor, the Black, and the marginalized as the source of cadavers in United States anatomical education

Abstract

When the practice of hands-on anatomical dissection became popular in United States medical education in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, demand for cadavers exceeded the supply. Slave bodies and thefts by grave robbers met this demand. Members of the public were aware that graves were being robbed and countered with various protective measures. Since the deterrence of grave robbing took time and money, those elements of society who were least economically and socially advantaged were the most vulnerable. Enslaved and free African Americans, immigrants, and the poor were frequently the target of grave robbing. The politically powerful tolerated this behavior except when it affected their own burial sites. Slave owners sold the bodies of their deceased chattel to medical schools for anatomic dissection. Stories of the ''night doctors'' buying and stealing bodies became part of African American folklore traditions. The physical and documentary evidence demonstrates the disproportionate use of the bodies of the poor, the Black, and the marginalized in furthering the medical education of white elites. Clin. Anat. 20:489-495, 2007. V V C 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

From Sacrilege to Privilege: The Tale of Body Procurement for Anatomical Dissection in the United States

“…While execution was a threat to one's life, dissection was an assault on one's soul. Being doubly sentenced (to execution and to dissection) was a punishment far worse than execution alone From Sacrilege to Privilege: The Tale of Body Procurement for Anatomical Dissection in the United States 4HiStoRical PeRSPective (Halperin 2007). In this way, anatomical dissection was practiced for a mixture of medical and punitive purposes (Hildebrandt 2008).…”

“…The corpses were transported, often by wagon, for sale to local anatomy professors. As professors would accept only bodies that had not badly decomposed, ten days was usually the limit between death and burial (Halperin 2007). As grave-robbing provided a fairly easy way to make money, the perpetrators ranged from professional thieves to tavern owners to employees at the medical schools themselves.…”

“…As grave-robbing provided a fairly easy way to make money, the perpetrators ranged from professional thieves to tavern owners to employees at the medical schools themselves. At times, even medical students or doctors themselves robbed graves (Garment et al 2007;Halperin 2007). …”

“…They often referred to the perpetrators as "night doctors," "sack-um-up men," or "body snatchers," while the anatomy professors called them by the more dignified term "resurrectionists." British and American Victorian literature even makes reference to grave-robbing for dissection, for example in Charles Dickens's Tale of Two Cities in 1859 and Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 (Halperin 2007). …”

“…Such graves often had worse security and were buried with less care. For the most part, society looked the other way with regard to grave-robbing, provided that the bodies continued to be procured mostly from the poor and marginalized segments of society (Halperin 2007 The most famous of such events was the New York Resurrection Riot in 1788 (also known as the Doctors' Riot). Supposedly, a doctor working in the anatomy lab at New York Hospital waved the arm of a cadaver at a young boy looking in the window.…”