From Chains to Stethoscopes: How Legacies of Slavery Haunt Women’s Modern Health Care
Content warning: mentions of torture and pain
Many of America’s modern medicine practices are founded and derived from historical practices, one of the main ones being from the era that has both defined and restricted it: slavery. The foundations of the gynecology we know today illustrate how the echoes of slavery are anything but dissipated in our healthcare industry.
Known as the “father of gynecology,” James Marion Sims is infamous for pioneering the field of gynecology through the most inhumane and brutal methods. According to the National Library of Medicine, Sims is largely credited as “the most famous American surgeon of the 19th century.” Particularly, he is remembered for his work in devising surgical tools and performing the first successful operation to cure vesicovaginal fistulas — a complication during childbirth in which a hole forms between the woman’s bladder and vagina. But, at what cost did he achieve such success?
As a doctor during slavery in the 1800s, Sims purchased and experimented on enslaved women without anesthesia to conduct his research on gynecology. A common belief propagated during slavery was that Black people did not feel pain like white people did. Thus, this idea was used to excuse the lack of anesthetics on Black bodies when forced into experiments. An article from The Washington Post mentions how Sims himself claimed that “Black women don’t feel pain.”
For these experiments, Sim invented the speculum, an inspection tool with metal bills that are inserted into the vagina to pry it open to see into the cervix. His original model was created with complete disregard for building a receptive design for the female body. Yet, to this day, this device that has such deep origins rooted in slavery and torture is still commonly used in routine gynecology exams.
The National Library of Medicine’s report found that between 1845 and 1849, Sims performed numerous surgeries on enslaved women, refusing to perform reparations on such operations. Sims' research, like any medical case study, required extensive methods, unorthodox thinking, and multiple attempts. However, for his work specifically, this meant excruciating suffering for the young women subjected to his scalpel.
A piece from History.com titled “The ‘Father of Modern Gynecology’ Performed Shocking Experiments on Enslaved Women,” uplifts the experiences and humanity of some of the many women Sims used in his medical investigations. Anarcha, a 17-year-old girl was subjected to 30 consistent surgeries on her body until Sims was able to close the holes in her bladder. Similarly, Lucy, a postpartum 18-year-old enslaved woman Sims publicly experimented on, was forced to kneel with her head and hands bent to the ground during an hour-long surgery on her bladder. Sims made a mistake in draining her bladder, which resulted in her contracting blood poisoning and nearly dying from the infection. These extremely mishandled surgeries on enslaved Black women served as America’s botched foundation for the future surgeries that would be performed on white women. Essentially, Black women’s bodies were used to perfect the healthcare procedures that would later be offered to white women under the best quality. They, of course, would receive anesthesia.
The legacies of slavery are just as prominent as ever. This is why we, as a collective society, cannot become desensitized and complacent in forgoing its influence in our country's systems. America was built off the silenced pain of enslaved individuals, but nonetheless, we hold agency in choosing to be hyper-aware of how our history intersects with the industries that continue to perpetuate oppression. Because then, we have the power to deconstruct and rebuild systems that are centered around the needs of humanity rather than white supremacist agendas.