Jude,
 
Thanks for the heads-up on the forthcoming publication of the Medical
College of Georgia project. I am going to be finishing up the writeup on
my project on the 1850s Medical College of Virginia ossuary this year. We
have some pretty good--and pretty scary--documentation to aid in the
interpretation of the 60+ cadavers we removed from that well. I am aware
of the Georgia Project--Doug Owsley brought it to my attention a couple
years ago, but I am dying to see what parallels might be found with
our project.
 
MCV advertised that it never had a shortage of subjects for its medical
training. We know for certain that 20 years later MCV had a professional
ghoul--a former slave--whose job was to excavate the black cemetery for
fresh specimens. There was a then-current urban myth that folks shouldn't
walk in some neighborhoods after dark or this fellow would come up behind
you, throw a bag over your head, knock you out and carry you back to the
Medical School as a specimen.
 
Less mythical is evidence of experimental surgery on slave women and a
possible practice whereby elderly slaves or their owners sold themselves
or their bodies to the hospital. Legally, MCV apparently had no access to
cadavers other than the bodies of executed criminals. Archaeological
evidence suggests, like their advertisements, that MCV had no shortage of
specimens, however.
 
The 60+ individuals we removed--and their are countless bodies remaining
sealed in that well--were all African Americans. Both sexes and all age
groups--especially younger folks--are represented. Owsley has more work to
do on the forensic studies and I have more to do on the history, but the
story that's coming together is not a pretty one.
 
Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
[log in to unmask]
http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm
 
On Thu, 18 Sep 1997, heyjude wrote:
 
> Any of you interested in African American archeaology might want to know
> about a book coming out this December from Smithsonsian Institute Press:
> Bones in the Basement: Post Mortem Racism in Nineteenth Century Medical
> Training.  It's a comprehensive volume about the Medical College of
> Georgia project conducted by researchers at Georgia State University and
> edited by Robert L. Blakely and Judith M. Harrington (me!).  It includes
> not only archaeology, but ethnography, experimental anatomy, forensic
> anthropology, history, and other good stuff.  Check it out at the SHA
> meeting in January in Atlanta.  We also have a symposium devoted to the
> subject at that meeting.
>
> (please excuse the commercial aspect of this message, but I couldn't
> resist!)
>
> Jude
>