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“…water when he asked for it…”

Sims’s autobiography does not specify that the “Anarcha” who is present when Lucas wishes to bleed him is the same as the “negro girl” who sleeps in the room with him, but the text has a hurried, as-told-to tone, and what seems most likely is that he simply skipped over repeating the name. Also, there are other instances in which Sims acknowledges drinking everything he is given during the illness.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 172, 174.

“…a hotbed of activity…”

Moore, A. B. (1927). History of Alabama and her people, p. 260.

“…a promiscuous huddle…”

Sims’s letter is dated January 10, 1836. A selection of his letters to Theresa is held in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill libraries. Many of these letters were reproduced in an appendix of Sims’s autobiography

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 374.

“…a free negro banjo player…”

Sims’s letter is dated October 3, 1835. A selection of his letters to Theresa is held in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill libraries. Many of these letters were reproduced in an appendix of Sims’s autobiography

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 370-71.

“…several days exploring…”

Sims’s biographer, Seale Harris, claims without evidence that this journey did not take place. Sims’s letter is dated November 3, 1835. In his next letter, dated November 13, he claims to have decided to make Mount Meigs his home. A selection of Sims’s letters to Theresa is held in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill libraries. Many of these letters were reproduced in an appendix of Sims’s autobiography.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 370.

“…countless lines of cotton plantations…”

“The Treatment of Syphilis,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, March 10, 1883, p. 449.

“…how masters protected their investments…”

“The Treatment of Syphilis,” J. Marion Sims, British Medical Journal, March 10, 1883, p. 449.

“…poverty, laziness, and filth…”

“Trismus Nascentium—Its Pathology and Treatment,” J. Marion Sims, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 21, April 1846, p. 363.

“Mount Meigs had only two…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 148.

“…called to Tuscaloosa…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 151.

“…already planning to leave the state.”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 150.

“…dying of consumption.”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 149-50.

“…a case of puerperal fever…”

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 151.