1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Earlier this week, we did an episode 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,120 Speaker 1: on Robert Liston, who did groundbreaking work in the field 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,800 Speaker 1: of surgery in the nineteenth century but became better known 4 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:16,280 Speaker 1: for some really gruesome and possibly apocryphal moments in his career. 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: In that episode, we very briefly mentioned the lack of 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: cadavers available for medical study at that time, and we 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: mentioned that there was more on this in our prior 8 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: episode on the Doctor's Riot of seventy eight, which came 9 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:32,479 Speaker 1: out on July, so we thought this would be the 10 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: perfect time to put that episode back into the feed. 11 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:40,839 Speaker 1: It's a story that combines medical history, racism, classism, mob violence, 12 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,199 Speaker 1: and changing attitudes about dissection and medical study. Yeah, that's 13 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: a lot, so enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in 14 00:00:51,159 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: History Class, a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, 15 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm sure Cvie Wilson and 16 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: I'm Holly fry So. Back when the podcast Sawbones launched, 17 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: we talked about it a couple of times on the 18 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 1: show and on our Twitter and stuff like that. It's 19 00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:15,119 Speaker 1: been a while since we brought up saw Bones, which 20 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: is a comedy podcast about medical history that's hosted by 21 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: Sydney and Justin McElroy, and I was catching up on 22 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: their show on the plane last week and I listened 23 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: to their episode called Corpse, Theft and the Resurrection Men, 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: which included, among other things, a little about the Doctor's 25 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,319 Speaker 1: Riot of seventy eight, which is what we're gonna talk 26 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:40,760 Speaker 1: about today because it's sort of quitted my appetite talk 27 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: more about that and to learn more about that. Um So, 28 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: if you've if you already listen to saw Bones, which 29 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: I know some of our listeners do listen to Sawbones, 30 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: there's some cross over there. We are definitely going to 31 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 1: talk in more detail about just the Doctor's riot and 32 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: the context that led up to it. And this is 33 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: definitely a different angle than saw Bones, so you you 34 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: know there's gonna be new stuff in here, even if 35 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:08,519 Speaker 1: you listened to that episode, so for context. In seventeen 36 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: sixty five, North America got its first medical school at 37 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,920 Speaker 1: the College of Philadelphia, and from the beginning, medical students 38 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:18,079 Speaker 1: at the College of Philadelphia worked with patients at the 39 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Hospital, gradually developing the blueprint for today's medical schools 40 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: and teaching hospitals. This program wasn't meant to be a 41 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,640 Speaker 1: person's sole source of medical education, though uh and the 42 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,640 Speaker 1: same was true of other medical schools that opened up 43 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:37,959 Speaker 1: during the colonial period and after the Revolutionary War. At 44 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 1: this point, most people became doctors through apprenticeships, and America's 45 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: first medical schools were intended to be this sort of 46 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: period of additional focused study for people who had already 47 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: finished their apprenticeship, so they already effectively were doctors before 48 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: they even went to medical school. There was also a 49 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: lot of anatomical study on cadavers in these programs. On 50 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: the idea that doctors needed to learn anatomy and that 51 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: dissecting cadavers was a good way to do this had 52 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,440 Speaker 1: become really prevalent during the eighteenth century. The thing that 53 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:12,080 Speaker 1: had not become really prevalent was a big supply of 54 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: cadavers to dissect. The idea of donating your body to 55 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: science really did not exist at this point. Most colonies 56 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,679 Speaker 1: either had no laws governing how bodies might be used 57 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: for medical study, or they specifically prohibited certain uses, for example, 58 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: dissecting unclaimed bodies. There was definitely no regulation of how 59 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: cadavers might be legally obtained and delivered, so schools needed 60 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: these bodies for legitimate study, but they had no legal 61 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: channels to get them. Plus, there were all kinds of 62 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 1: religious and cultural taboos that made people pretty opposed to 63 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: the idea of having their bodies cut, cut up and 64 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: examined after they were dead. Among Christians and Jews, the 65 00:03:54,880 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: body was sacred. Various Christian denominations believed that being cut 66 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: up after death was sacrilegious and it would prevent them 67 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: from getting into heaven or from being resurrected on Judgment Day. 68 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: Similar beliefs about the sacredness of the body also ran 69 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: through African traditions that slaves had brought with them, and 70 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: being a doctor at this point in time did not 71 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: have the prestige in the cloud that it does today, 72 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: at least in the Western world, so people were not 73 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: particularly inclined to go against all of these layers of 74 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: taboo to let their bodies be cut up by doctors. 75 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: And it didn't help that British medical schools have been 76 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: using executed criminals for their dissections, so this made American 77 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: communities associate being dissected with being a criminal or with 78 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: being punished. Although it was illegal, there were some schools 79 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: that got their bodies from prisons and almshouses and other institutions. 80 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: They would covertly by the bodies of people who had 81 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: died before they even were buried. But really the primary 82 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: source of cadaver for a really long time was grave robbing, 83 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: and this of course had its own social and religious implications. 84 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: So churchyards were and remained for many people sacred, bodies sacred, 85 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: So digging up bodies out of graveyards and cutting them 86 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: up was a gross offense, and it made doctors who 87 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: already worked particularly well respected, seemed like they had just 88 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: this wanton disregard for human life and just no regard 89 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: for basic decency. There were doctors and students who dug 90 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: up their own cadavers, but they mostly outsourced that work 91 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: to people who were known as resurrectionists, who did the 92 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: actual grave robbing. I feel like this would be a 93 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: great series on one of the secondary um channels, the resurrectionists. 94 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,359 Speaker 1: They had this process, the resurrectionists down to a science. 95 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: So at this point, embalming was not widely used. It 96 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:56,320 Speaker 1: you know, had culturally in history, it had happened in 97 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:58,839 Speaker 1: many places, but in terms of like the modern approach 98 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: to it, that was not really common uh, So these 99 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,679 Speaker 1: guys had to work quickly, ideally within hours of burial. 100 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: It was kind of like a heist movie, except it 101 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:10,080 Speaker 1: involved graves instead of like a bank, uh. And instead 102 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: of digging up the whole length of the casket, they'd 103 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: work just from the head, and they would weaken one 104 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 1: end of the casket by drilling holes in it before 105 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: bashing it in and just pulling the body out through 106 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: the hole with hooks, getting in and out of the 107 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 1: place within an hour, and timing the passing of their 108 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: getaway vehicle so they could slip the body into it 109 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: and escape. The graves that were at the biggest risk 110 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 1: of being robbed were the ones that belonged to poor 111 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: people and slaves, and these were the people who were 112 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: least likely to have someone watching out for the grave 113 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:42,839 Speaker 1: after the people died. And both of these places, the 114 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 1: resurrectionists did not have to be quite as on the 115 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: ball with their you know, their their heist shenanigans, because 116 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: most of the people who were being buried in cemeteries 117 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 1: for the poor and for slaves didn't have the money 118 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:57,920 Speaker 1: to buy a coffince. They were buried directly in the 119 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: dirt and the words of hair. Yet Martineau, who was 120 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,359 Speaker 1: writing an account of a trip in the eighteen hundreds, 121 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:09,280 Speaker 1: quote in Baltimore, the bodies of colored people exclusively are 122 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: taken for dissection because the whites do not like it, 123 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: and the colored people cannot resist. So although the overwhelming 124 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: majority of stolen bodies were those of black people and 125 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: poor people, having money or status was not necessarily a protection. 126 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: High profile body thefts made headlines, such as the time 127 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: that a search party found the body of John Harrison, 128 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,559 Speaker 1: who was son of President William Henry Harrison and father 129 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: of President Benjamin Harrison, at a medical college in Cincinnati. 130 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: This meant that people who could afford it would bury 131 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: their loved ones in these sealed iron coffins, or they 132 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: would surround the whole grave site in this metal cage 133 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: that covered the whole thing. Some of them who had 134 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: the money to even hired armed guards to watch over 135 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:59,160 Speaker 1: their newly buried bodies. And regardless of who you were, 136 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: your body lee was not safe from theft until it 137 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: had been in the ground for about two weeks in 138 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: the winter shorter in the summer, at which point it 139 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: would be too decomposed to be dissected, and before we 140 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: move on to exactly what was happening in New York 141 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: at the time of this particular riot. Let's have a 142 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: brief moment for a word from a sponsor. In New 143 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: York where the riot that we're talking about today took place, 144 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: A major source of bodies for cadaver study was the 145 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,240 Speaker 1: Potter's Field, where the poor and the unknown were buried 146 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: in unmarked graves. The other big source was the Negroes 147 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 1: burial Ground, which was kind of coincidentally quite close to 148 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,560 Speaker 1: New York Hospital. Nearly all of New York City's black 149 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: population was buried in Negro's burial ground. There was only 150 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,599 Speaker 1: one church that buried black people in a segregated churchyard, 151 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:59,200 Speaker 1: and it charged a fee to do so. As body 152 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:02,800 Speaker 1: theft from the Grows burial ground became more and more commonplace, 153 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: freed slaves would actually buy land to use as private cemeteries. 154 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,440 Speaker 1: This didn't necessarily help, since these private burial grounds sometimes 155 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: became targets of their own. New York City's demand for 156 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: all these cadavers came from two sources. One was its 157 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: medical school at Columbia College, and the other was Richard Bailey, 158 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: who was a doctor from Connecticut and he was teaching 159 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: not for credit medical classes at New York Hospital, which 160 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 1: we just mentioned was very close to the Negroes burial ground, 161 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,720 Speaker 1: and that made the Negroes burial ground an easy target 162 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: for gray robbers. So both freed people and slaves in 163 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,200 Speaker 1: New York at this time and become increasingly upset at 164 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: the prevalence of grave grave robbing from the black burial spaces. 165 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: In early February of a group of two thousand slaves 166 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,120 Speaker 1: and one thousand freed people began petitioning the city's common Council, 167 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: including the Mayor and Alderman, not for the gray robbing 168 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: to stop, but for it at least to be carried 169 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,960 Speaker 1: out in a decent and respectful way. This petition read, 170 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,559 Speaker 1: in part, most humbly, Sirs, we declare that it has 171 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,440 Speaker 1: lately been the practice of a number of young gentlemen 172 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: in this city, who call themselves students of the physic, 173 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,400 Speaker 1: to repair to the burying ground assigned for the use 174 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:22,560 Speaker 1: of your petitioners. Under the cover of night, in the 175 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: most wanton sallies of excess, they dig up bodies of 176 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,719 Speaker 1: our deceased friends and relatives of your petitioners, carrying them 177 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,560 Speaker 1: away without respect for age or sex, mangle their flesh 178 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: out of a wanton curiosity, and then expose it to 179 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,400 Speaker 1: beasts and birds. Your petitioners are well aware of the 180 00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:45,160 Speaker 1: necessity of physicians and surgeons consulting dead subjects for the 181 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: benefit of mankind. Your petitioners do not presuppose it as 182 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,120 Speaker 1: an injury to the deceased, and would not be adverse 183 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:56,080 Speaker 1: to dissection in particular circumstances, that is, if it is 184 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:59,960 Speaker 1: conducted with the decency and propriety which the solemnity of 185 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: such occasion requires. Your petitioners do not wish to impede 186 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,520 Speaker 1: the work of these students of the physic, but most 187 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: humbly pray your honors to take our case into consideration 188 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,200 Speaker 1: and adopt such measure as may seem to prevent further 189 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:22,840 Speaker 1: abuses in the future. Their petition was ignored, but on 190 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 1: February one, so only a couple of weeks later, the 191 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 1: Daily Advertiser published an anonymous report about how quote a 192 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: few blacks are buried whose bodies are permitted to remain 193 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:38,920 Speaker 1: in the grave end quote. Through the rest of February 194 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,240 Speaker 1: and part of March, the Daily Advertiser went on to 195 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: publish really horrifying accounts of grave desecration and body theft, 196 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 1: and then things came to a head in April. There 197 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 1: are several conflicting reports of exactly what started the riot, 198 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:58,000 Speaker 1: so it's not completely clear exactly what happened, but there 199 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,719 Speaker 1: are three pretty common elements of all the various retellings. 200 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: The first is that on April thirteen, some doctors and 201 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: their teacher were dissecting a cadaver in a lab at 202 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:12,360 Speaker 1: New York Hospital. The second is that, by some means 203 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: or another, a boy got a glimpse of what was 204 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:18,319 Speaker 1: going on through the window and the doctor saw him. 205 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: And the third is that one of the surgeons, probably 206 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: in an attempt to scare the boy off, waived the 207 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:28,360 Speaker 1: cadaver's arm at him, and some versions of the story 208 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 1: one of the doctors shouted that it was the boy's 209 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 1: mother's arm, and by coincident, this boy's mother had died 210 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 1: very recently. This version of the story usually goes on 211 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:41,840 Speaker 1: to say that the boy ran home and told his father, 212 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:46,760 Speaker 1: who exhumed his mother's grave only to find it empty. 213 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:52,160 Speaker 1: That seems like a lot of things that had to 214 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 1: happen just that way. Yeah, it feels like an urban legend. Yeah, 215 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:03,120 Speaker 1: something definitely happened to spark the whole riot, but this 216 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: particular version of the story is completely retold. But I 217 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,079 Speaker 1: read a couple of things that kind of went back 218 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 1: through all of the earliest correspondents and news reports, and 219 00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:17,320 Speaker 1: we're like, ah, there's not actual documentation of exactly what 220 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: really tipped the scale. But regardless of how exactly this 221 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: whole thing started, a mob soon descended upon New York Hospital, 222 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:30,840 Speaker 1: and a letter to Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph, Colonel William 223 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: Heath described it this way. The cry of barbarity and 224 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:38,400 Speaker 1: etcetera was soon spread. The young sons of Galen fled 225 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:42,560 Speaker 1: in every direction. One took refuge in a chimney. The 226 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: mob raised, and the hospital apartments were ransacked. In the 227 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,760 Speaker 1: anatomy room were found three fresh bodies, one boiling in 228 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:52,640 Speaker 1: a kettle, and two others cut up, with certain parts 229 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 1: of the two sex hanging up in a most brutal position. 230 00:13:56,160 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: The circumstances, together with the wanton and apparent inhuman complexion 231 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:04,080 Speaker 1: in the room, exasperated the mob beyond all bounds, to 232 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: the total destruction of every anatomy in the hospital. And 233 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,840 Speaker 1: while many of the doctors and the teachers did indeed flee. 234 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: Some stayed behind to try to protect the cadavers, the 235 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 1: other specimens, and the teaching materials, but the mob that 236 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: arrived at the hospital dragged all of this out into 237 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: the street and they set it on fire. They also 238 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 1: reburied the bodies that had not been dissected yet. The mayor, 239 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 1: James Dwayne, arrived with the sheriff and put the doctors 240 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:35,680 Speaker 1: and teachers into protective custody at the jail. This calmed 241 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: things down a little bit, but during the night, medical 242 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,680 Speaker 1: students from Columbia, fearing that their school was going to 243 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: be the next target, went into the school to hide 244 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: all of their anatomical materials and cadavers that they would 245 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: not be burned and destroyed as well. And this turned 246 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,000 Speaker 1: out to be a fortunate move since during the night 247 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: to medical students George Swinney and Isaac Ghano broke into 248 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: a churchyard and stole body of a well known white woman, 249 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:04,640 Speaker 1: which meant that the mob that formed the next morning 250 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: was immense and furious. It swelled to about five thousand people. 251 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 1: This mob was bound and determined to find and destroy 252 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:17,120 Speaker 1: anything that was being used for anatomical study at Columbia, 253 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: so they searched the entire college, including the dorms, and 254 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 1: they went on to search doctor's homes. One person they 255 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 1: ran across was even beaten solely for wearing black, which 256 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 1: was the color that the doctors usually wore. And when 257 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: the mob found nothing uh, they all ended up going 258 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:36,120 Speaker 1: to the jail, where they started an assault on the 259 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: building with rocks and bricks. They tore down the gallows 260 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: to use the wood as a weapon as the rocks 261 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: and the bricks broke windows and made their way into 262 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 1: the cells where people were being held. The doctors and 263 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:53,360 Speaker 1: the students started collecting them, along with broken glass to 264 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: defend themselves, and this riot went on for another full 265 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: day until the governor called out the militia. They brought 266 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:05,840 Speaker 1: in a brigade and artillery, and the ensuing melee. It's 267 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,600 Speaker 1: similarly not clear exactly what happened, but ultimately at least 268 00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: three rioters and three militiamen were killed. The final death 269 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:18,800 Speaker 1: toll is often sided at twenty and afterwards, residents of 270 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 1: New York doubled down on their efforts to protect the 271 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: bodies of the dead. Armed groups called dead guardmens started 272 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:29,760 Speaker 1: to keep watch over cemeteries. Bailey and the other doctors 273 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,360 Speaker 1: budged the truth by saying they had never asked anyone 274 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: to steal a body from one of the city's graveyards. 275 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: The reason this was not really on the up and 276 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: up was that the Potter's Field and the Negroes burial 277 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 1: ground were both outside of the city limits UH, and 278 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: in fact that this point black people could only be 279 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 1: buried outside the city limits. So what they were saying 280 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: was technically true, but it was really pretty easily. Yes, 281 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: there was a grand jury investigation, but no charges seemed 282 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: to have been filed and no one was convicted, possibly 283 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: because both the rioters and the doctors were breaking the law. 284 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: The riot, apart from destroying anatomical UH equipment and samples 285 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:16,199 Speaker 1: and causing some deaths, had some ongoing ramifications which we 286 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:26,840 Speaker 1: want to talk about afterwards from a sponsor. So the 287 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,200 Speaker 1: doctor's riot, which was in seventeen eighty eight, was only 288 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 1: one of the anatomy riots in the United States between 289 00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: seventeen sixty five and eighteen fifty four. There were at 290 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:41,840 Speaker 1: least seventeen of them. They took place primarily in New England, 291 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 1: where most of the medical colleges were at the time, 292 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 1: but they were also riots as far west as Ohio 293 00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:51,159 Speaker 1: and Illinois, and these were not at like fly by 294 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:55,200 Speaker 1: night shady schools. Uh in an eighteen twenty four riot, 295 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:59,440 Speaker 1: the target of this mob aggression was actually Yale University. 296 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,400 Speaker 1: In January of seventeen eighty nine, which was the year 297 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,119 Speaker 1: after the Doctor's Ride in New York took place, the 298 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: New York legislature passed laws that made grave robbing illegal, 299 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:14,000 Speaker 1: and they earmarked certain crimes as being punishable by quote 300 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,719 Speaker 1: dissection after death, so there would be a legal supply 301 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,960 Speaker 1: of bodies. But this didn't provide enough bodies for the 302 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: medical study that was going on, so the grave robbing 303 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: did continue, particularly in Potter's fields and black cemeteries. Massachusetts 304 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:33,080 Speaker 1: passed a law making it legal to dissect unclaimed bodies 305 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty one. New York did the same thing 306 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:39,359 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty four, but other laws were a little 307 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:44,439 Speaker 1: bit slower in coming. By nineteen thirteen, Louisiana and Alabama 308 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 1: still had no legal way for medical schools to obtain canavers, 309 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: while most other states had passed laws allowing unclaimed bodies. 310 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:55,560 Speaker 1: Donated bodies and the bodies of executed criminals to be dissected. 311 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: Even then, the bodies that were being dissected in medical 312 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: schools were disproportionately those of poor people and minorities, so 313 00:19:04,359 --> 00:19:07,120 Speaker 1: they were people who couldn't afford burials or their families 314 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: couldn't afford to claim their bodies, and grave robbing for 315 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: cadaver purposes continued in the United States until the nineteen twenties. 316 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,679 Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, the medical establishment 317 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:23,200 Speaker 1: worked to change people's perceptions of dissection and of donating 318 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: bodies to science. In nineteen sixty eight, the National Conference 319 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:31,760 Speaker 1: of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved the Uniform 320 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:35,719 Speaker 1: Anatomical Gift Act or u A g a UH. And 321 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,919 Speaker 1: this made donating your body a choice and a gift. 322 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: And it also gave the person who was doing the donating, 323 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:45,920 Speaker 1: so the person whose body it actually was, the ultimate 324 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 1: say in what would happen to them. So if you 325 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: wanted to donate your body, it would be donated, even 326 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,159 Speaker 1: if your next of ken objected to the choice that 327 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:57,040 Speaker 1: you had made. Almost every state had had adopted this 328 00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,680 Speaker 1: law or something very similar to it within a few 329 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:04,119 Speaker 1: year ers and today bequests actually make up the large 330 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,520 Speaker 1: majority of cadavers, which completely changed the demographic of dissected 331 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: bodies and medical schools. Yeah, one of my sources cited 332 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: a personal communication from somebody at Duke University Medical School 333 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 1: from about ten years ago, and at that point, according 334 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: to this personal correspondence, like the cadavers at Duke were 335 00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:28,080 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly those of Caucasian people. Um I could not find 336 00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:32,960 Speaker 1: statistics for like the broader all of United States medical 337 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,639 Speaker 1: school or in general people who are donating their bodies. 338 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,640 Speaker 1: But this whole shift in it from being a thing 339 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:41,919 Speaker 1: that happens to you if you can't afford to be 340 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,440 Speaker 1: buried to a thing you choose to do totally changed 341 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: the whole picture of it, which is very fascinating stuff, 342 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:57,200 Speaker 1: kind of kind of gruesome, it is, but you know, 343 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,840 Speaker 1: it's good that people recognize that science needs their body 344 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:09,240 Speaker 1: after they have shuffled off this mortal coil. Thank you 345 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you 346 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,560 Speaker 1: have heard an email address or a Facebook you are 347 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,320 Speaker 1: l or something similar over the course of today's episode, 348 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 1: since it is from the archive that might be out 349 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,959 Speaker 1: of date now, you can email us at History Podcast 350 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,160 Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works dot com and you can find 351 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: us all over social media at Missed in History and 352 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, 353 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,880 Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen 354 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a 355 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 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