Page 259

“Then he preached a sermon…”

The National Anti-Slavery Standard, January 3, 1857, p. 1.

“…fifty-four thousand slaves…”

The National Anti-Slavery Standard, January 17, 1857, p. 3.

“…Dr. Sims removed Anarcha’s sutures on January 13…”

Anarcha’s case record, in the first of three surviving case record books, is held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.

“…E.P. Christy…”

The National Anti-Slavery Standard, January 24, 1857, p. 3.

“The last bit of news…”

The New York Times, February 21, 1857.

“Trains ran on mail schedules…”

The New York Times, February 23, 1857.

“…railroad crews fighting…”

The New York Times, February 21, 1857.

“Villainous rowdies…”

The New York Times, February 21, 1857.

“…snowdrifts had climbed to eight feet…”

The New York Times, February 23, 1857.

“Howling wind made melancholy music…”

The New York Times, February 21, 1857.

“Water pipes burst…”

The New York Times, February 21, 1857.

“Anarcha was improved…”

As will be seen later, I am doubting Sims’s account of the surgery he performed on Anarcha at Woman’s Hospital. It is rare, today, that a woman with a bad fistula is operated on more than a few times before she is either declared incurable or is advised to undergo bypass surgeries or procedures that install a permanent colostomy bag. Anarcha was most certainly not cured at Woman’s Hospital, and what seems most likely is that Sims would not have even bothered to try—rather, he used Anarcha again as an opportunity for a refinement of another surgery had had devised since he last saw her (see below).