Anarcha Westcott was an enslaved seventeen year old woman who was experimented on by James Sims. Without her consent, Sims conducted thirty operations on Anarcha without anesthesia in hopes to find a cure for vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula.
Portrait of John Brown
John Brown, also known as “Fed,” was a slave who worked for Stevens for more than 15 years, and then given to Thomas Hamilton. Hamilton “borrowed” John Brown to use him as an experiment for potential remedies for sun-stroke. After many failed attempts, Fed escaped, thus claiming the name of John Brown.
Scientific Racism: Types of Mankind (1854)
This illustration is from the book Types of Mankind (1854) written by Josiah Clark Nott who used scientific racism to support that "Negroes" were inferior and in the ranks between the Greeks and chimpanzees.
Alligator Baits
Slave owners would kidnap small Black children, left them in alligator territories to use them as a bait. The crying infants would be used to lure alligators for hunting purposes.
The Portrait of Ota Benga
Ota Benga was a Mbuti man taken from Congo and caged with monkeys in the Bronx Zoo as an exhibition for the public.
The Portrait of Saartjie Baartman
Saarrjie Baartman was a South African Khoikhoi woman who had large buttocks. Baartman was sexually exploited and exhibited as freak show attractions under the stage name “Hottentot.”
The Tale of Joice Heth: Public Dissection
Joice Heth was an African-American slave who was exhibited by P.T. Barnum. Barnum falsely claimed that she was the 161-year-old nursing mammy of George Washington. After her death, she was publicly dissected as a means to prove her actual age.
SLAVE DAGUERREOTYPES
In 1850, Louis Agassiz commissioned photographer Joseph T. Zealy to photograph slave men and women in efforts to further his study on “races.”
The Portrait of Fortune
Fortune was enslaved by a physician Preserved Porter in the late 18th century. After Fortune’s death, Porter dissected and preserved his bones for his study of anatomy.
The Zong Massacre
In the days following November 29, 1781, more than 130 slaves were thrown overboard into the sea to drown in hopes to claim compensation for the slaves.
