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“…had begun experimenting with…”

In the debate over Sims’s non-use of anesthesia during the Alabama fistula experiments, defenders have argued that as a doctor on the frontier Sims couldn’t have been expected to have known of the latest developments in anesthesia. However, years later, Sims himself wrote on the subject of the origin of anesthesia, and it’s unlikely he came to be aware of the new agents only after he left Alabama. Indeed, as I have indicated earlier (see “…a batch of gas…,” above), even Sims’s professors had experimented with pain-killing agents such as nitrous oxide, and reports of these experiments would surely have been passed along to students.

“The Discovery of Anesthesia,” J. Marion Sims, The Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, Vol. 23, 1877, pp. 536, 543-544.

“…so was the microscope promising…”

It’s a bit early in Sims’s career for him to be considering the microscope a valuable tool, so I have taken a slight liberty here.

“Illustrations of the Value of the Microscope in the Treatment of the Sterile Condition,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, October 31, 1868, p. 465.

“…cruel to impose freedom…”

Nott, J.C. (1851). An essay on the natural history of mankind, viewed in connection with Negro slavery delivered before the Southern Rights Association, 14th December, 1850. Mobile, Ala: Dade, Thompson, Printers, p. 7.

“At the Democratic convention…”

Harris is very much covering for Sims here—Harris had significant evidence that Sims had acted on behalf of the Confederacy during the war, but he either didn’t pursue the leads he had found in fear of what he’d find, or he intentionally covered them over.

Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 94.

“…capitol building caught fire…”

Society of Pioneers of Montgomery. (1965). A History of Montgomery in pictures. Montgomery, Ala.: Society of Pioneers of Montgomery, p. 10.

“…its clock was installed.”

Society of Pioneers of Montgomery. (1965). A History of Montgomery in pictures. Montgomery, Ala.: Society of Pioneers of Montgomery.

“…the Compromise of 1850.”

This, obviously, is a dramatic simplification of a hugely complicated subject. I’ve attempted to render only how the gist of the Compromise of 1850 would have filtered down to citizens in Alabama.

https://www.history.com/topics/abolitionist-movement/compromise-of-1850

“…abolitionist pamphlets…”

Lyell, C. (1849). A second visit to the United States of North America. New York: Harper & Bros, Vol. II, pp. 40-41.

“…Nott and LeVert…”

Horsman, R. (1987). Josiah Nott of Mobile: Southerner, physician, and racial theorist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, p. 224.

“…a theatre and an opera…”

Read, N. C., Read, D., & Read, J. C. (2005). Deep family. Montgomery, AL: NewSouth Books, p. 44.

“…a new artesian well…”

Society of Pioneers of Montgomery. (1965). A History of Montgomery in pictures. Montgomery, Ala.: Society of Pioneers of Montgomery.