1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Wilson and I'm Holly fry So. Back when 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: the podcast Sawbones launched, we talked about it a couple 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: of times on the show and on our Twitter and 6 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:25,439 Speaker 1: stuff like that. It's been a while since we brought 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:29,080 Speaker 1: up saw Bones, which is a comedy podcast about medical 8 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: history that's hosted by Sydney and Justin McElroy. And I 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: was catching up on their show on the plane last 10 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: week and I listened to their episode called Corpse Theft 11 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: and the Resurrection Men, which included, among other things, a 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: little about the Doctor's Riot of seventy eight, which is well, 13 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about today because it's sort of wedded 14 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: my appetite talk more about that and to worry more 15 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: about that. Um So, if you've if you already listen 16 00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: to saw Bones, which I know some of our listeners 17 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: do listen to saw Bones, there's cross over there. We 18 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,399 Speaker 1: are definitely going to talk in more detail about just 19 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:06,960 Speaker 1: the Doctor's riot and the context that led up to it. 20 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: And this is definitely a different angle than sabb Owes. 21 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: So you you know there's gonna be new stuff in 22 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: here even if you listened to that episode, so for context. 23 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty five, North America got its first medical 24 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: school at the College of Philadelphia, and from the beginning, 25 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: medical students at the College of Philadelphia worked with patients 26 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: at the Pennsylvania Hospital, gradually developing the blueprint for today's 27 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: medical schools and teaching hospitals. This program wasn't meant to 28 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:42,039 Speaker 1: be a person's sole source of medical education, though, uh 29 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: and the same was true of other medical schools that 30 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: opened up during the colonial period and after the Revolutionary War. 31 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: At this point, most people became doctors through apprenticeships, and 32 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 1: America's first medical schools were intended to be this sort 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: of period of additional focused study for people who had 34 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: already finished their apprenticeship, so they already effectively were doctors 35 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: before they even went to medical school. There was also 36 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: a lot of anatomical study on cadavers in these programs, 37 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: on the idea that doctors needed to learn anatomy and 38 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:15,959 Speaker 1: that dissecting cadavers was a good way to do this 39 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 1: had become really prevalent during the eighteenth century. The thing 40 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: that had not become really prevalent was a big supply 41 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:29,359 Speaker 1: of cadavers to dissect. The idea of donating your body 42 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: to science really did not exist at this point. Most 43 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: colonies either had no laws governing how bodies might be 44 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 1: used for medical study, or they specifically prohibited certain uses, 45 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: for example dissecting unclaimed bodies. There was definitely no regulation 46 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: of how cadavers might be legally obtained and delivered, so 47 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: schools needed these bodies for legitimate study, but they had 48 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: no legal channels to get them. Plus, there were all 49 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: kinds of religious and cultural taboos that made people pretty 50 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: opposed to the idea of having their bodies cut, cut up, 51 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:06,400 Speaker 1: and examined after they were dead. Among Christians and Jews, 52 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: the body was sacred. Various Christian denominations believed that being 53 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,239 Speaker 1: cut up after death was sacrilegious and it would prevent 54 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: them from getting into heaven or from being resurrected on 55 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: Judgment Day. Similar beliefs about the sacredness of the body 56 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: also ran through African traditions that slaves had brought with them, 57 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: and being a doctor at this point in time did 58 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: not have the prestige in the cloud that it does today. 59 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: At least in the Western world, so people were not 60 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: particularly inclined to go against all of these layers of 61 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: taboo to let their bodies be cut up by doctors. 62 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 1: And it didn't help that British medical schools had been 63 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 1: using executed criminals for their dissections, so this made American 64 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 1: communities associate being dissected with being a criminal or with 65 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: being punished, although it was illegal. There were some schools 66 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: that got their bodies from ins and alms houses and 67 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: other institutions. They would covertly by the bodies of people 68 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: who had died before they even were buried, But really 69 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 1: the primary source of cadavers for a really long time 70 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: was grave robbing, and this of course had its own 71 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: social and religious implications. So churchyards were and remained for 72 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: many people sacred, bodies sacred, so digging up bodies out 73 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: of graveyards and cutting them up was a gross offense, 74 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,919 Speaker 1: and it made doctors who already worked particularly well respected 75 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,159 Speaker 1: seemed like they had just this wanton disregard for human 76 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: life and just no regard for basic decency. There were 77 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: doctors and students who dug up their own cadavers, but 78 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: they mostly outsourced that work to people who were known 79 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: as resurrectionists, who did the actual grave robbing. I feel 80 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: like this would be a great series on one of 81 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: the secondary um channels, the resurrectionists. And they had this process, 82 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 1: the resurrectionists, down to a science. So at this point, 83 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: embalming was not widely used. It you know, had culturally 84 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:08,719 Speaker 1: in history, it had happened in many places, but in 85 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: terms of like the modern approach to it, that was 86 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,160 Speaker 1: not really common. Uh. So these guys had to work quickly, 87 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,440 Speaker 1: ideally within hours of burial. It was kind of like 88 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: a heist movie, except it involved graves instead of like 89 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: a bank. Uh And instead of digging up the whole 90 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,279 Speaker 1: length of the casket, they'd work just from the head 91 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: and they would weaken one end of the casket by 92 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,120 Speaker 1: drilling holes in it before bashing it in and just 93 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: pulling the body out through the hole with hooks, getting 94 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: in and out of the place within an hour, and 95 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: timing the passing of their getaway vehicle so they could 96 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: slip the body into it and escape. The graves that 97 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 1: were at the biggest risk of being robbed were the 98 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: ones that belonged to poor people and slaves, and these 99 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 1: were the people who were least likely to have someone 100 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: watching out for the grave after the people died. And 101 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: both of these places, the resurrectionists did not have to 102 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: be quite as on the ball with their you know, 103 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: their their heists shenanigans, because most of the people who 104 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: were being buried in cemeteries for the poor and for 105 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,600 Speaker 1: slaves didn't have the money to buy a coffin, so 106 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: they were buried directly in the dirt. And the words 107 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: of Harriet Martineau, who was writing an account of a 108 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 1: trip in the eighteen hundreds quote in Baltimore, the bodies 109 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: of colored people exclusively are taken for dissection because the 110 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: whites do not like it, and the colored people cannot resist. So, 111 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: although the overwhelming majority of stolen bodies were those of 112 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: black people, in poor people having money or status was 113 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:39,839 Speaker 1: not necessarily a protection. High profile body thefts made headlines, 114 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: such as the time that a search party found the 115 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 1: body of John Harrison, who was son of President William 116 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,520 Speaker 1: Henry Harrison and father of President Benjamin Harrison, at a 117 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: medical college in Cincinnati. This meant the people who could 118 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:55,760 Speaker 1: afford it would bury their loved ones in these sealed 119 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,479 Speaker 1: iron coffins, or they would surround the whole grave site 120 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: in this old cage that covered the whole thing. Some 121 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,359 Speaker 1: of them who had the money to even hired armed 122 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 1: guards to watch over their newly buried bodies. And regardless 123 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: of who you were, your body really was not safe 124 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: from theft until it had been in the ground for 125 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 1: about two weeks in the winter shorter in the summer, 126 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: at which point it would be too decomposed to be dissected. 127 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: And before we move on to exactly what was happening 128 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:27,680 Speaker 1: in New York at the time of this particular riot, 129 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 1: let's have a brief moment for a word from a sponsor. 130 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 1: In New York where the riot that we're talking about 131 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: today took place, A major source of bodies for cadaver 132 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: study was the Potter's Field, where the poor and the 133 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: unknown were buried in unmarked graves. The other big source 134 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: was the Negroes burial Ground, which was kind of coincidentally 135 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: quite close to New York Hospital. Nearly all of New 136 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: York City's black population was buried in Negro's burial ground. 137 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: There was only one church that buried black people in 138 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 1: a segregated churchyard. It charged a fee to do so. 139 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: As body theft from the Negro's burial ground became more 140 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 1: and more commonplace. Freed slaves would actually buy land to 141 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: use as private cemeteries. This didn't necessarily help, since these 142 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: private burial grounds sometimes became targets of their own. New 143 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: York City's demand for all these cadavers came from two sources. 144 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,800 Speaker 1: One was its medical school at Columbia College, and the 145 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: other was Richard Bailey, who was a doctor from Connecticut, 146 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: and he was teaching not for credit medical classes at 147 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,480 Speaker 1: New York Hospital, which we just mentioned was very close 148 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: to the Negroes burial ground, and that made the Negroes 149 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: burial ground an easy target for gray robbers. So both 150 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: freed people and slaves in New York at this time 151 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: and become increasingly upset at the prevalence of grave grave 152 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:53,920 Speaker 1: robbing from the black burial spaces. In early February of 153 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: a group of two thousand slaves and one thousand freed 154 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: people began petitioning the City East Common Council, including the 155 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:04,960 Speaker 1: mayor and aldermen, not for the grave robbing to stop, 156 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: but for it at least to be carried out in 157 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: a decent and respectful way. This petition read in part 158 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: most humbly, sirs, we declare that it has lately been 159 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: the practice of a number of young gentlemen in this city, 160 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: who call themselves students of the physic, to repair to 161 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,719 Speaker 1: the burying ground assigned for the use of your petitioners. 162 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,000 Speaker 1: Under the cover of night, in the most wanton sallies 163 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: of excess, they dig up bodies of our deceased friends 164 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: and relatives of your petitioners, carrying them away without respect 165 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: for age or sex, mangle their flesh out of a 166 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: wanton curiosity, and then expose it to beasts and birds. 167 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,679 Speaker 1: Your petitioners are well aware of the necessity of physicians 168 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:50,440 Speaker 1: and surgeons consulting dead subjects for the benefit of mankind. 169 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,200 Speaker 1: Your petitioners do not presuppose it as an injury to 170 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 1: the deceased, and would not be adverse to dissection in 171 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:01,080 Speaker 1: particular circumstances, that is, if it is conducted with the 172 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:05,559 Speaker 1: decency and propriety which the solemnity of such occasion requires. 173 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,200 Speaker 1: Your petitioners do not wish to impede the work of 174 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: these students of the physic, but most humbly pray your 175 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: honors to take our case into consideration and adopt such 176 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: measure as may seem to prevent further abuses in the future. 177 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: Their petition was ignored, but on February one, so only 178 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,560 Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later, the Daily Advertiser published an 179 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: anonymous report about how quote few blacks are buried whose 180 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: bodies are permitted to remain in the grave end quote. 181 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:43,839 Speaker 1: Through the rest of February and part of March, the 182 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 1: Daily Advertiser went on to publish really horrifying accounts of 183 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: grave desecration and body theft, and then things came to 184 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: a head in April. There are several conflicting reports of 185 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 1: exactly what started the riot, so it's not completely clear 186 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: exactly what happened, but there are three pretty common elements 187 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: among all the various retellings. The first is that on 188 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: April thirteen, some doctors and their teacher were dissecting a 189 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:15,160 Speaker 1: cadaver in a lab at New York Hospital. The second 190 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:17,680 Speaker 1: is that by some means or another, a boy got 191 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: a glimpse of what was going on through the window 192 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 1: and the doctor saw him. And the third is that 193 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,959 Speaker 1: one of the surgeons, probably in an attempt to scare 194 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:30,480 Speaker 1: the boy off, waived the cadaver's arm at him. And 195 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: some versions of the story, one of the doctors shouted 196 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: that it was the boy's mother's arm, and by coincident, 197 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:42,080 Speaker 1: this boy's mother had died very recently. This version of 198 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: the story usually goes on to say that the boy 199 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: ran home and told his father, who exhumed his mother's 200 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: grave only to find it empty. That seems like a 201 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: lot of things that had to happen just that way. Yeah, 202 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:05,240 Speaker 1: it feels like an urban legend. Yeah, something definitely happened 203 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: to spark the whole riot. But this particular version of 204 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,760 Speaker 1: the story is completely retold. But I read a couple 205 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:14,720 Speaker 1: of things that kind of went back through all of 206 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:18,440 Speaker 1: the earliest correspondents and news reports, and we're like, ah, 207 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:22,559 Speaker 1: there's not actual documentation of exactly what really tipped the scale. 208 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: But regardless of how exactly this whole thing started, a 209 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:31,319 Speaker 1: mob soon descended upon New York Hospital, and a letter 210 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 1: to Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph Colonel William Heath described it 211 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:40,199 Speaker 1: this way. The cry of barbarity and etcetera was soon spread. 212 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: The young sons of Galen fled in every direction. One 213 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,680 Speaker 1: took refuge in a chimney. The mob raised, and the 214 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: hospital apartments were ransacked. In the anatomy room were found 215 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: three fresh bodies, one boiling in a kettle, and two 216 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: others cut up, with certain parts of the two sex 217 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: hanging up in a most brutal position. The circumstances, together 218 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 1: with the wanton and apparent inhuman complexion in the room, 219 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,440 Speaker 1: exasperated the mob beyond all bounds, to the total destruction 220 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:13,440 Speaker 1: of every anatomy in the hospital. And while many of 221 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: the doctors and the teachers did indeed flee, some stayed 222 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: behind to try to protect the cadavers, the other specimens, 223 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:22,880 Speaker 1: and the teaching materials. But the mob that arrived at 224 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,720 Speaker 1: the hospital dragged all of this out into the street 225 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: and they set it on fire. They also reburied the 226 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: bodies that had not been dissected yet. The mayor, James Dwayne, 227 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:36,200 Speaker 1: arrived with the sheriff and put the doctors and teachers 228 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:40,319 Speaker 1: into protective custody at the jail. Those calm things down 229 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,720 Speaker 1: a little bit, but during the night, medical students from Columbia, 230 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,680 Speaker 1: fearing that their school was going to be the next target, 231 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 1: went into the school to hide all of their anatomical 232 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,200 Speaker 1: materials and cadavers that they would not be burned and 233 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:57,160 Speaker 1: destroyed as well, and this turned out to be a 234 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:00,560 Speaker 1: fortunate move since during the night to medical students George 235 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:03,920 Speaker 1: Swinney and Isaac Gano broke into a churchyard and stole 236 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:06,880 Speaker 1: the body of a well known white woman, which meant 237 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: that the mob that formed the next morning was immense 238 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: and furious. It swelled to about five thousand people. This 239 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: mob was bound and determined to find and destroy anything 240 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 1: that was being used for anatomical study at Columbia, so 241 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:24,720 Speaker 1: they searched the entire college, including the dorms, and they 242 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: went on to search doctors homes. One person they ran 243 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: across was even beaten solely for wearing black, which was 244 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: the color that the doctors usually wore. And when the 245 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 1: mob found nothing uh, they all ended up going to 246 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: the jail, where they started an assault on the building 247 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: with rocks and bricks. They tore down the gallows to 248 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,360 Speaker 1: use the wood as a weapon as the rocks and 249 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:50,080 Speaker 1: the bricks broke windows and made their way into the 250 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: cells where people were being held the doctors and the 251 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: students started collecting them along with broken glass to defend themselves, 252 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,480 Speaker 1: and this it went on for another full day until 253 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 1: the governor called out the militia. They brought in a 254 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: brigade and artillery, and the ensuing melee. It's similarly not 255 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: clear exactly what happened, but ultimately at least three rioters 256 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: and three militiamen were killed. The final death toll is 257 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:23,280 Speaker 1: often sided at twenty and afterwards, residents of New York 258 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: doubled down on their efforts to protect the bodies of 259 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:29,840 Speaker 1: the dead. Armed groups called dead Guardmen's started to keep 260 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: watch over cemeteries. Bailey and the other doctors budged the 261 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,800 Speaker 1: truth by saying they had never asked anyone to steal 262 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,200 Speaker 1: a body from one of the city's graveyards. The reason 263 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: this was not really on the up and up was 264 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: that the Potter's Field and the Negroes burial ground were 265 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 1: both outside of the city limits uh and in fact, 266 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: that this point black people could only be buried outside 267 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,320 Speaker 1: the city limits. So what they were saying was technically true, 268 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 1: but it was really pretty easily. Yes, there was a 269 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: grand jury investigation, but no charges seemed to have been 270 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:06,080 Speaker 1: filed and no one was convicted, possibly because both the 271 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 1: rioters and the doctors were breaking the law. The riot, 272 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:17,320 Speaker 1: apart from destroying anatomical UH equipment and samples and causing 273 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: some deaths had some ongoing ramifications which we want to 274 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: talk about afterwards from a sponsor. So the Doctor's Riot, 275 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: which was in seventeen eighty eight, was only one of 276 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,840 Speaker 1: the anatomy riots in the United States between seventeen sixty 277 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: five and eighteen fifty four. There were at least seventeen 278 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:38,600 Speaker 1: of them. They took place primarily in New England, where 279 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:40,720 Speaker 1: most of the medical colleges were at the time, but 280 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,840 Speaker 1: they were also riots as far west as Ohio and Illinois, 281 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: and these were not at like fly by night shady 282 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 1: schools UH in an eighteen twenty four riot. The target 283 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: of this mob aggression was actually Yale University. In January 284 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:00,360 Speaker 1: of seventeen eighty nine, which was the year after the 285 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: Doctor's Ride in New York took place, the New York 286 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: legislature passed laws that made grave robbing illegal, and they 287 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 1: earmarked certain crimes as being punishable by quote dissection after death, 288 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,080 Speaker 1: so there would be a legal supply of bodies. But 289 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,240 Speaker 1: this didn't provide enough bodies for the medical study that 290 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 1: was going on, so the grave robbing did continue, particularly 291 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: in Potter's Fields. And black cemeteries. Massachusetts passed a law 292 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:31,199 Speaker 1: making it legal to dissect unclaimed bodies in eighteen thirty one. 293 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: New York did the same thing in eighteen fifty four, 294 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,840 Speaker 1: but other laws were a little bit slower in coming. 295 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:42,359 Speaker 1: By nine thirteen, Louisiana and Alabama still had no legal 296 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:45,800 Speaker 1: way for medical schools to obtain canavers, while most other 297 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: states had passed laws allowing unclaimed bodies, donated bodies, and 298 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:54,000 Speaker 1: the bodies of executed criminals to be dissected. Even then, 299 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 1: the bodies that were being dissected in medical schools were 300 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: disproportionately those of poor people in my parties, so they 301 00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,000 Speaker 1: were people who couldn't afford burials or their families couldn't 302 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,560 Speaker 1: afford to claim their bodies, and grave robbing for cadaver 303 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,840 Speaker 1: purposes continued in the United States until the nineteen twenties. 304 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,240 Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, the medical establishment 305 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,720 Speaker 1: worked to change people's perceptions of dissection and of donating 306 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:23,840 Speaker 1: bodies to science. In nineteen sixty eight, the National Conference 307 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:28,280 Speaker 1: of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved the Uniform 308 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: Anatomical Gift Act or u a g a UH and 309 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:35,439 Speaker 1: this made donating your body a choice and a gift, 310 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: and it also gave the person who was doing the donating, 311 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: so the person whose body it actually was, the ultimate 312 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: say in what would happen to them. So if you 313 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 1: wanted to donate your body, it would be donated, even 314 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,680 Speaker 1: if your next of ken objected to the choice that 315 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: you had made. Almost every state had had adopted this 316 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: law or something very similar to it within a few years, 317 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:02,119 Speaker 1: and today bequests actually make the large majority of cadavers, 318 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: which completely changed the demographic of dissected bodies in medical schools. Yeah. 319 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,439 Speaker 1: One of my sources cited a personal communication from somebody 320 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,680 Speaker 1: at Duke University Medical School from about ten years ago, 321 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: and at that point, according to this personal correspondence, uh, 322 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: like the cadavers at Duke were overwhelmingly those of Caucasian people. 323 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 1: UM I could not find statistics for like the broader 324 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,960 Speaker 1: all of United States medical school or in general people 325 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 1: who are donating their bodies. Uh. But this whole shift 326 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,239 Speaker 1: in it from being a thing that happens to you 327 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:39,640 Speaker 1: if you can't afford to be buried to a thing 328 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: you choose to do totally changed the whole picture of it. 329 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 1: Which is very fascinating stuff. Kind of kind of gruesome, 330 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,160 Speaker 1: it is, but you know, it's good that people recognize 331 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,160 Speaker 1: that science needs their body after they have shuffled off 332 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:02,200 Speaker 1: this mortal coil. Uh. Do you have listener mail which 333 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 1: may or may not be about dead people. I do 334 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 1: have listener mail that is about someone who is dead, 335 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: but it is not about their bodies. This is from Heather, 336 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,919 Speaker 1: and it's about our Edna St. Vincent Malay episode. And 337 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: Heather says, Dear Tracy and Holly, I just listened to 338 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:18,919 Speaker 1: your two part episode on Edna St. Vincent Malay and 339 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,200 Speaker 1: had to write in to share my own experiences with 340 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 1: the poet. While she did not live most of her 341 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 1: adult life in Maine, we Mainners claim her as one 342 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:29,080 Speaker 1: of our own, despite our people's taciturn disapproval of her 343 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:32,840 Speaker 1: quote firecracker lifestyle. I first fell in love with Renaissance 344 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: when I read in eighth grade as part of a 345 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: required unit on our home state of Maine. For extra credit, 346 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:39,919 Speaker 1: I went to Camden and hiked Mount Batty part of 347 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,119 Speaker 1: the Camden Hills, and climbed up Mount Batty Tower and 348 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:46,640 Speaker 1: photographed the scene that inspired the opening lines of the poem, 349 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 1: as well as a plaque placed into the tower commemorating 350 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: quote Maine's finest lyric poet. She's described in the plaque 351 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: as a frail girl with flaming red hair, and the 352 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: general description of her told in public schools is one 353 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: of a brilliant mind, mind with a love of nature. 354 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,520 Speaker 1: It wasn't until I was in college that I learned 355 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: of Vincent's love affairs with men and women, and that 356 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: she reportedly wore pants and smoked marijuana long before those 357 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:13,120 Speaker 1: were acceptable. I have no proof of these claims other 358 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: than what my professor told me, but I love thinking 359 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:18,400 Speaker 1: of her as such a unique spirit. Needless to say, 360 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 1: it was a far cry from the stagy old coddters 361 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,639 Speaker 1: we've been reading about. When I became a high school 362 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,679 Speaker 1: English teacher, I always lead with Vincent Shenanigan's, turning my 363 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,040 Speaker 1: students into fans before they'd read a single line of 364 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: her poetry. To me, she is the painter in saying 365 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,679 Speaker 1: of awesome, and largely my kids agreed. Maine can be 366 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,160 Speaker 1: a heart climate, and too often those who lived here 367 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: are broken by the demands of survival. Even today, I've 368 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:43,520 Speaker 1: always loved that Edna st. Vincent Malay gave that way 369 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 1: of life too, firm middle fingers and lived her own 370 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: way so fully. I think she and Thorow would have 371 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: been great friends if they could have been here in 372 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: Maine together. Thank you so much for the podcast, Heather, 373 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,919 Speaker 1: and she included some photos. Now I think about the 374 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:01,040 Speaker 1: time traveling possibilities of like and the St. Vincent wlian 375 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:06,080 Speaker 1: Brook Farm community. Yeah, I kind of want I kind 376 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 1: of want Edna St Vincent Malay to have had a 377 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:12,159 Speaker 1: big conversation with Walt Whitman. Yeah. I could see that 378 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:14,640 Speaker 1: being a pretty fun show to watch. I would pay 379 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,560 Speaker 1: tickets for that. I think I'm i too. So if 380 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,080 Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about this or 381 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: any other subject, you can where a history of podcasts 382 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,080 Speaker 1: at how stuffworks dot com. We've been saying that address 383 00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: for a while, but to make it super clear, if 384 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,199 Speaker 1: you send it to Discovery dot com, we will not 385 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: get it. Uh. We're on Facebook at Facebook dot com 386 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: slash miss in history and on Twitter at miss in History. 387 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: Are tumbler is miss in history dot tumbler dot com, 388 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 1: and we're also on pinterest. Uh. If you'd like to 389 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,920 Speaker 1: learn more about what we talked about today, You can 390 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,160 Speaker 1: come to how stuff works dot com with the word 391 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: doctor in the search bar, and you will find how 392 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,040 Speaker 1: becoming a doctor works. You can also come to our website, 393 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: which is missed in History dot com, where you will 394 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: find all kinds of show notes, links to all the episodes. 395 00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:57,960 Speaker 1: I will also put into today's show notes links to 396 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: two different websites that listeners have made for us telling 397 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,119 Speaker 1: you whether England was at war with France. You can 398 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: do all of that, and a whole lot more at 399 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:08,960 Speaker 1: our website how stuff works dot com or missing history 400 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:15,160 Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other 401 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: topics because at how stuff works dot com. M