WEBVTT - Meet the So-Called Night Doctors: Chris Baker and Grandison Harris 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.320 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:15.960 partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.079 trom Marquis. And before we begin talking about the two 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.880 men highlighted in this episode, Chris Baker and Grandison Harris, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.320 we have a few important things to talk about first. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.760 I'm Holly Fry. Chris Baker and Grandison Harris were both 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.920 enslaved men whose work it was to snatch bodies from graves. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.159 To tell their stories, you're gonna hear some outdated language. 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.920 We have chosen to include certain racial epithets as they 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.400 appear in quoted material, not the one you're probably most 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.360 worried about. Don't worry. We're doing that though, in order 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.120 to honestly represent the bigoted language that was incredibly common 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.200 and accepted at the time. This is, of course, if 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.080 you know anything about it, a difficult period America's history. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.039 But it's really important to tell the stories of black 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.399 men like Baker and Harris as they live their lives. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.960 And while we're setting this stage, let's also make sure 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.840 we're on the same historical and constitutional page. We're not 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.720 going to dive deeply into the history of the United 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.360 States during the time of its Civil War. That would 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.039 be an incredibly enormous and ongoing project, and there are 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.120 plenty of resources for that information if you want to 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.920 brush up on it. But there are a few key 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.720 things to know that will help these men's stories come 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.440 to life. The stories of both Chris Baker and Grandison 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.880 Harris take place during the American Civil War, fought between 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:44.000 April eighteen sixty one and April eighteen sixty five. Actually 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.679 their stories take place a little bit before and a 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.920 little bit afterwards as well. Post war, the United States 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.440 Congress made amendments to the United States Constitution to both 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.080 end slavery and to grant citizenship to black people. The 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.000 Thirteenth Amendment, passed by Congress on January thirty first, eighteen 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.280 sixty five, and ratified on December six that same year, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.600 abolished slavery within the United States or any place subject 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.680 to their jurisdiction. Congress made several new laws to protect 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.240 former enslaved persons, including the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.960 was passed by Congress on June thirteenth, eighteen sixty six, 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.560 and ratified on July nine, eighteen sixty eight. It was 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.240 intended to grant citizenship and equal civil and legal rights 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.679 to free black people and enslaved persons who were emancipated 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.240 after the Civil War. The Confederate States, defeated in the 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.919 war underwent what was known as reconstruction. That always sounds 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.160 like such a positive word, but this was a very 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.120 turbulent time in the Southern States from the end of 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.440 the war in eighteen sixty five until eighteen seventy seven. 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.640 This period was intended to have transformed the states politically, socially, 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.880 and economically, but free and newly freed black people found 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.360 themselves instead up against Jim Crow laws and black codes 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.720 that enforced or even legalized racial segregation. These laws, which 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.080 varied from state to state, became well established and lasted 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.520 for almost a hundred years from the post Civil War 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.880 era until around nineteen sixty eight. Their main purpose was 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.320 to marginalize the black American community. Let's name off just 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.360 a few examples. For instance, marriage between a white person 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.840 and a person of color any color was prohibited, and 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.520 that was actually the case in some US states until 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:41.080 nineteen sixty seven. There were segregated waiting rooms, elevators, restrooms, 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.760 you get the idea, and none of those designated spaces 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.840 for black people were built or maintained to the same 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.680 standards as those that were intended for the use of 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:56.000 white people. Nothing about this was equal. In Georgia, for example, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.600 where Grandison Harris lived, it was unlawful for and we 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.840 are this now quote any amateur white baseball team to 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.160 play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.760 two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.640 And it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.840 team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.840 diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:28.080 white race. Virginia, which was Baker's home, authorized cities and 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.880 towns to create what we're called segregation districts to prevent 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:36.960 anyone of color from moving into white neighborhoods. Okay, so 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.840 now that we know where we are in history, let's 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.719 take a break for a word from our sponsor. When 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.040 we're back, we'll talk about who Chris Baker was and 0:04:46.320 --> 0:05:02.320 why he was important. Welcome back to Criminalia. Now that 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:04.680 we have a little bit of background into the time 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.240 Chris Baker and Grandison Harris were alive, Let's start talking 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.680 about their actual lives. Despite what we may often see 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.960 in movies and media, not all enslaved people worked as 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.239 agricultural laborers on large plantations, such as those producing cotton 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.520 or sugarcane. While many did work on plantations in the 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.880 Southern States, there were also enslaved people engaging in skilled labor, 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.480 such as in domestic jobs cooks, blacksmiths, drivers, gardeners. That 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.120 list goes on and on. There were a variety of 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.880 workplaces including when you might not think of, well, at 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:45.080 least probably not at first, Chris Baker may have been 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.600 involved in the theft of hundreds of corpses from black 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.080 cemeteries across Richmond, Virginia in the mid to late eighteen hundreds. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.320 Chris was a black man born at the Medical College 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.920 of Virginia or m c V, to enslaved parents who 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.040 also worked at the school. Those who were enslaved were 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.640 considered property, and that made Chris the property of m 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:13.800 c V. He was born into enslavement. Demographic information about 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.719 Chris varies on just about every single detail, beginning with 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.600 the year of his birth. Without knowing when he was born, 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.120 it's hard to determine if he was an enslaved man 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.440 during his time snatching bodies or part of the time, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.760 or if he was freed with others at the close 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.039 of the Civil War. Some records indicate he had a 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:37.479 wife named Martha, maybe Martha. Some reports refer to Martha 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.520 as his mother, not his wife, and he did were 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.640 fairly certain have a son named John. Some reports suggested 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.760 Chris lived with his family in the basement of the 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.920 Egyptian building at the school. However, this is also a 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.839 for debate. Some historians point to the city directories in 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.239 the early nineteen hundreds, where a Chris Baker is listed 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.840 at a series of addresses close to the hospital in 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:05.560 Jackson Ward District of Richmond. When Chris began acquiring bodies, 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.599 it was either by his own hands with a team 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.560 of a few other guys, or by hiring others to 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.840 do so for him. Regardless of whether he worked alone 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.840 or not, all of the bodies he acquired were for 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.520 the Medical College of Virginia. As an aside here, The 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.480 Medical College of Virginia that we're talking about joined with 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.800 the Richmond Professional Institute in nineteen eight to form Virginia 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.840 Commonwealth University or VCU as we know it today. Chris 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.200 was m c VS in house resurrection man, or as 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.120 he was described in the nine census, his occupation was 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.280 quote an anatomical man. In addition to digging up bodies, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.640 his work also included preserving those bodies in quicklime for dissection, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.880 as well as generally keeping up with the local deaths 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.760 and therefore any potential body snatching opportunities in the city. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.640 Chris was well respected on campus. In fact, he was 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.960 often asked to take pictures with the medical students after dissections. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.520 But in the black community it was rumored Chris could 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.480 wield black magic. As one future doctor wrote of the 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.400 legendary resurrection man, quote, he was a small man, bald, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.960 and wore a black skull cap that made him so 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:26.240 distinguishable that Negroes avoided him like the plague. According to 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.640 VC used chairman of the Department of African American Studies, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:34.040 Dr Shaun O. Utsie Baker had been arrested several times 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.680 in the act of stealing bodies. He describes an instance 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.120 when Chris and three other men were caught by local 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:45.280 Virginia authorities in the process of disturbing at least eight graves, 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.240 so this is a large operation at that point. That time, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.240 Baker was indicted on one felony and two misdemeanor counts 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.160 of body snatching, but he was pardoned by the governor. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.920 As we've talked about in almost every episode this sea 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.080 and many authorities simply looked the other way when it 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:08.920 came to this job, and Chris became famous, infamous as 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.640 a ghoul who haunted the graves of the black community. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.959 There is no way to know how many bodies were 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.559 stolen from cemeteries in the area, but the estimates from 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.760 within the black cemeteries are in the thousands. Baker, it said, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.520 was known to haunt both the Sycamore Cemetery on the 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:31.800 North Side and the Oakwood Cemetery in northeast Richmond. Unlike 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.120 the white students who took photos with him, his work 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.960 left the black community fearful of him. There are many 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.240 sensational stories surrounding Chris. One talehold is that he would 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.720 attend funerals disguised as a mourner to scout for fresh bodies. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.200 Another tells of how some richmonders believed he carried a 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.640 bag to silence the screams of the living he captured 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.400 in dark alleys around the city. Little side note here, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.200 there's really no evidence that Chris committed orders for bodies, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.080 although that wasn't unheard of among body snatchers. If you 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.040 remember the term burking. We talked about that in our 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.280 episode about William Burke and William Hare, who never seemed 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.040 to have stepped foot in a cemetery, yet were highly 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:20.000 successful at delivering fresh corpses. The Virginia State Newspaper argued 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.200 in a front page feature story that Chris Baker and 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.960 other resurrection men were not what many considered to be quote, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.719 a necessary evil. This article argued, quote, if they be, 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.680 why not divide the honors between Oakwood Cemetery and Hollywood alike, 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.760 and between the two races. It has been claimed by 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.880 many white men that Negroes are physically dissimilar to Caucasians. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.960 If that be true, then it is not fair to 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.119 the white people that only colored ones should be dissected 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.599 and should be the only ones of whose physical structures 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:59.640 the doctors have any knowledge. After an eight five visits 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.240 in their land, English travel writer Harriet Martineau astutely observed 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.880 that quote in Baltimore, the bodies of colored people exclusively 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.640 are taken for a dissection because the whites do not 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:16.560 like it and the colored people cannot resist. Chris Baker 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.520 story is not the only one of its kind. Next, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.200 we are going to travel to Georgia. It's a little 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.720 bit early, but we're going to take this opportunity for 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.600 a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, we'll 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:46.040 talk about the life of Grandison Harris. Welcome back to Criminalia. 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.120 Grandison Harris was an enslaved man who stole the bodies 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.240 of black people from black graveyards. A little bit similar. 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.559 Here is his story. The Medical College of Georgia and 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.679 Augusta once purchased a man for the purpose of quote, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.200 procuring subjects for anatomical study. Yes, this is real, and 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.120 stay with us here. In eighteen fifty two, the Medical 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.880 College of Georgia or MCG bought a black man named 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.520 Grandison Harris to be their exclusive body snatcher for their 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.880 anatomy classes, and he was jointly owned by all seven 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:29.360 members of the school's medical faculty. Let's unpack that statement 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.120 and a half. Yes, a medical college purchased a thirty 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.520 six year old enslaved man in the mid eighteen hundreds 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:41.520 when slavery was legal in the state of Georgia. According 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.120 to faculty minutes from an eighteen fifty two meeting at MCG, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.560 the dean of the college purchased Grandison at a Charleston, 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:54.960 South Carolina auction for seven hundred dollars. So seven hundred 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.640 dollars in eighteen fifty, if you're curious, is roughly equivalent 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.359 in purchasing power to about twenty six thousand dollars today. 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.800 According to reports of the event, Grandison was separated from 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.760 his wife, who was pregnant and who remained enslaved as well. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.280 Grandison was described as quote a large and powerful Galla 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.400 slave born in eighteen sixteen in West Africa. As an 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.000 enslaved Gulla man, he would have been from one of 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.840 several tribal groups of western Central Africa who, upon being 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.000 brought to the United States, were primarily forced to work 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.600 on the plantations of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:39.400 and Florida, often on rice and cotton plantations. Grandison's fate 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.360 brought him to Georgia, but not to a rice field. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:48.840 Before Grandison became mcg's go to grave robber, The faculty 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:53.800 had tried a few alternative methods for procuring cadavers. First, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.760 there was no way these seven doctors, who were apparently 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:02.000 comfortable owning a human planned to potentially ruin their reputations 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.160 by getting caught with a hand in a coffin. So 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.760 that was out. The school's cadaver program began just like 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.760 a lot did. They purchased fresh corpses for seventy five 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:17.120 cents each from local body snatchers in Augusta, but they 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.680 ran up against a common problem there was a limited supply. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.840 In eighteen thirty nine, the school tried a different tactic 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.560 and began to source cadavers from out of state for 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.840 one hundred dollars. One order of bodies from New York 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.240 City was shipped in barrels of whiskey to preserve them 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.640 during travel. What is unclear in that report, though, is 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.720 exactly how many bodies one might purchase for one dollars 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.640 shipped from New York. Regardless, that was not really an 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.560 efficient method anyway. They still needed more corpses, so to 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.280 fill this void they brought in Grandison. For decades, Grandison's 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.520 work was as an in house resurrection man dedicated to 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.080 steal bodies from graves at downtown Augustus Black Cedar Grove 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.520 Cemetery to be delivered to and used by the medical school. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.360 Cedar Grove Cemetery is notable here because it was reserved 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.480 for Augustus impoverished and black residents. There was no fence, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.560 and the bodies there were buried in plain pind coffins, 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:23.520 sometimes known as toothpicks. Dr Eugene Murphy and mcg professor 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.240 and former dean, who was a contemporary of Grandison, had 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.640 observed the body snatcher at work. He recounted his routine 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.640 as quote. He would go to the cemetery late at night, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.040 with only the moon watching. He would quickly dig down 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.440 to the upper end of the box, smash it with 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.080 an axe, reach in there with his long and powerful arms, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.320 and draw the subject out. He would put the subject 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.840 in a big sack, place it in a cart, and 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.520 carry it to the school. Grandison, we should note, was 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.040 known to be really meticulous. He would memorize the grave 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.040 site before disturbing it, and then he was able to 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.360 to recreate that grave site perfectly once he had put 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.840 the dirt back down, right down to the flower arrangements. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.880 The exhumed body was first destined for preservation in vats 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.320 of whiskey, and later it was off to the dissection table. 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:19.000 Between eighteen thirty five and nineteen twelve five nine eight 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:24.240 Telfare Street, an impressive Greek Revival style building, housed nearly 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.880 all of the medical colleges anatomy classes and their cadavers. 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.960 Stories of these quote night doctors, a term often used 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.320 in regard to the stealing and selling of bodies, became 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.800 part of local black focal or tradition, and men like 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.200 Harris and Baker as well were turned into a sort 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.880 of bogeyman, used to scare local children and frankly, to 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.320 scare adults as well. There's a chapter on Harris in 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.880 the book Bones in the Basement post Mortem Racism in 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:57.000 nineteenth century Medical Training, in which J. Philip Waring, retired 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.920 administrator of the Urban League, is quoted as saying local 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.880 blacks feared him because they did not know who he 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.639 was going to dig up next. He was feared in 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.320 the I don't want to say supernatural, but anyone who 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.080 goes out and digs up bodies and gets away with 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.520 it and makes money. And the medical college promoted him, 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.640 and what have you what kind of person was this? 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.960 It's believed doctors and doctors in training at the medical 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.120 school were the ones who taught Grandison to read and 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.440 write so that he could follow the obituaries and funeral 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:35.480 announcements in the local papers. It was illegal for an 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.280 enslaved person to read or write at this time in 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.239 America's history, so Grandison had skills that other black men 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.480 would not have had. Chris Baker, for instance, was not literate. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.560 Historians also believe that Grandison had decent knowledge of anatomy 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:56.160 and even assisted during dissections, and that he became something 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.720 of a respected mentor like figure among the medical students. 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.240 And photographs taken of each graduating class during his tenure 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.440 you will find Harris standing along with the students. Eugene 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.120 Murphy of MCG also described how after one late night run, 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.040 Grandison went from the graveyard to a saloon. Two students 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.480 who've been watching the night doctor, walked over to his 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.280 wagon and pulled a corpse from a sack. One of 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.600 the students, as the story goes, then climbed into that sack. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.800 When Grandison returned from having a drink, the student moaned 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.960 from within the sack, quote Grandison, I'm cold, buy me 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.720 a drink, And to that the legend goes. Grandison replied, 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.560 you can buy your own damn drink. With the end 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.480 of the Civil War on April night, eighteen sixty five, 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.400 and the abolition of slavery on December eighteenth, eighteen sixty five, 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:53.159 Grandison was a freeman and he left mcg his wife 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.440 and child. A son named George, moved to be with him. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.080 He relocated his family across the Savanna, a river from Augusta, 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.120 to the small town of Hamburg, South Carolina that's now 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.000 known as North Augusta, and there he served as a 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.880 judge in a Freedman's Bureau court. Those were courts meant 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.440 to settle cases of freed or formerly enslaved people who 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:19.119 were facing prejudice in the white court system. Even with 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.080 his family reunited and a new respectable job, there is 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.840 no way this was an easy time for Grandison. The 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.919 reconstruction period had become a violent political crisis, and in 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.440 its failure, Jim Crow laws became the way things were 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.399 in Georgia and across many Southern states, and Grandison found 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.120 himself in a strange place in his community. He could 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.560 read and write he held a good job. He's described 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:51.439 as wearing quote proper gentleman's clothing, and a description of 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.240 that would be, say, imagine a panama hat in the summer, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.040 a derby in the winter, and he always wore a 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.160 mutineer in his lapel on sun days. Grandison, it seems, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.520 from all accounts, was a really friendly man. It was 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.359 known among the black community that he threw great parties 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.680 that were attended by the emite of local black society. 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.439 He was a member of the influential Colored Knights of Patheus, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.760 a Masonic secret society that was started in eighteen eighty 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.840 by black men. It borrowed from the rituals of the 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.879 White Knights of Patheus. The biggest difference here was that 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:31.480 any race was eligible to join the Colored Knights. Hamburg 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:36.800 was a small, primarily black community across the river from Augusta, Georgia, 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.080 but that doesn't mean that it was a haven for 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:44.160 black residents. White people from the surrounding area continually clashed 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.840 with the residents there. An event called the Hamburg Massacre 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:52.200 happened there in July of eighteen seventy six. That massacre 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.199 was rooted in racial hatred and political motives, and it 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.800 began as a simple dispute over free passage on a 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:04.040 public road. Two white farmers were temporarily blocked from crossing 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.960 a road while an all black regiment engaged in a 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:13.040 military exercise. Outraged the men, who were named Thomas Butler 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.480 and Henry gets Him filed a formal complaint demanding Hamburg's 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:22.360 all black militia be disbanded. This is a very significant 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.439 and detailed event in Southern history. We are speeding through it, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.520 we know. But the deal here is that when the 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:32.040 governor called in local paramilitary groups known as the Red 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:35.920 Shirts to quell any violence that seemed to be simmering, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:42.000 at least according to his estimation, terrible things happened. Hundreds 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.399 of the all white Red Shirts surrounded and attacked the 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.560 black militia regiment. Six black men and one white man 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.359 were killed, and the event did nothing but worse in 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:58.000 relation between the races spurred by racial tension, Grandison left Hamburg. 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.800 He moved his family to Augusta and returned to his 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.000 work in the dissection lab, this time as a full 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.760 time employee at the Medical College of Georgia, and that 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.240 meant he was paid for his work. He received eight 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.640 dollars a month for doing the work he'd previously done 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.320 for the school as an enslaved man. We did find 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.239 one report that his salary fell between ten dollars and 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:20.760 fifteen dollars a month, so a little bit more, and 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.560 that when he retired in nive it was on a 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.320 pension of ten dollars a month. So we're in the 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.879 ballpark here. He was listed as supporter in the medical 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.720 schools records, although everyone knew that wasn't really his job. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.760 But this time around at MCG the medical students didn't 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.399 see him as a mentor. They treated him, it's reported 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.600 as though he had been quote disloyal to the South 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.240 by working on the behalf of the black community in 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.159 a freedman's bureau of court, and they mocked him for 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.399 his attempt at social climbing. In fact, both students and 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:58.040 faculty mocked him by calling him judge off campus among 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.360 free and enslaved blocks in Augusta. At the time, Grandison 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.080 was known as a ghost, a ghoul, and even a villain. 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:09.760 Despite a new law allowing dissection in Georgia to be 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:14.000 legal beginning in eight seven, that law still didn't mean 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.720 there were enough fresh corpses for dissection tables, and the 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:22.240 body snatcher profession was still needed. Grandison continued to not 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.560 only rob graves, but helped purchase corpses of the poor 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.320 who died in prisons and hospitals and from anywhere else 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.960 he got a tip on a fresh corpse. As Grandison 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:35.920 got older, his son, George, began to take on more 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:39.879 of the school's graveyard responsibilities, but George was not as 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:43.560 well liked or as responsible as his father had been. 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.960 The dissection lab began to emit an odor strong enough 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:49.000 for the Board of Health to be called in, and 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.320 they discovered not only old rags and tobacco on the floor, 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:56.040 but also scraps from dissection procedures and a neglected vat 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.800 full of bones. Not the kind of scene in medical school, 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:05.679 or actually really anyone wants to explain. Grandison retired in 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.040 nineteen o eight, after giving one final lecture instructing the 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:13.160 medical students on the finer points of being a night doctor. 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:16.399 He died of heart failure in nineteen eleven at the 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:19.439 age of ninety five, and he was buried in Cedar Grove, 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:23.240 the very same cemetery where he had plundered for fresh 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:28.000 corpses for decades. In nine nine, the cemetery's records were 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:32.720 destroyed when the Savannah River overflowed, and today still no 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:37.119 one knows where Harris's body lies. In addition to that 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:41.919 bone collection, in nine nine, construction workers accidentally discovered the 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:45.159 remains of We've seen this two ways, actually of roughly 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.960 four hundred corpses or ten thousand bones below the old 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:53.760 Medical College building on Telfair Street, many of whom were 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:56.919 likely secretly disposed of by Grandison as part of his 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:01.439 daily duties. Some remains were still marked as specimens, but 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:05.560 because many were scattered or broken, it's been difficult for 0:25:05.720 --> 0:25:11.320 archaeologists and forensic anthropologists to determine much about them. The ancestry, sex, 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:15.080 or age of each individual is unknown. What they have 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:17.560 been able to figure out, though, through testing, is that 0:25:17.600 --> 0:25:20.960 seventy seven percent of the bones are male, and most 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:24.480 of the remains belonged to black men. Found with them 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:27.240 were old medical tools, as well as an old wooden 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:29.960 vat that had been used to store bodies and whiskey, 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:34.040 and that that still contained bones too. The discovery was 0:25:34.080 --> 0:25:36.800 turned over to local authorities, and the bones were buried 0:25:36.920 --> 0:25:44.600 in Cedar Grove Cemetery. This is obviously a very complex story. 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:49.840 It's not just body snatching. There is also race, socioeconomic status, 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:52.600 right and wrong, and it's a story that we hope 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:56.400 experts to dive more deeply into. One thing that kept 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:59.160