General Discussion

Read the whole piece from Wikipedia. It is horrifying and inhumane as the doctor doing experimental surgeries on her could have used anesthesia and chose not to. It seems clear that he saw her as less than human.

I could not find a photo I remember seeing years ago of Anarcha on a bed with chains hanging nearby to restrain her during the pain of surgery with no anesthesia. Dr. Sims was honored for his heinous experiments and became known as the father of gynecology.

"Anarcha Westcott (c. 1828 – June 27, 1869) was an enslaved woman who is known as the "mother of modern gynecology" for having undergone a series of experimental surgical procedures conducted by medical doctor J. Marion Sims, without the use of anesthesia, in order to develop treatments for vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula resulting from traumatic childbirth, primarily aimed at benefitting white female patients.[1] Sims's medical experimentation on Anarcha and other enslaved women, and its role in the development of modern gynaecology, has generated controversy among medical historians, particularly because enslaved women have not had the right to refuse involvement."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcha_Westcott