Page 80

“…it refused the second night too…”

Sims’s reports are inconsistent. This is the only account in which he specifies how long Anarcha was in labor before he performed a forceps delivery.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 226.

“…called for Dr. Hugh Henry…”

Inferred from the fact that Sims reports that Henry asked him to go to the Westcotts’, and Henry’s suggestion that Sims bring his instruments suggests that Henry had already seen Anarcha.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 226.

“…the labor pains had mostly stopped…”

Inferred from the fact that Sims reports that Henry asked him to go to the Westcotts’, and Henry’s suggestion that Sims bring his instruments suggests that Henry had already seen Anarcha.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 227.

“He couldn’t use ergot…”

This is from a pamphlet published by Sims’s future champion and New York colleague, Fordyce Barker.

Barker, F. (1858). On the comparative use of ergot and the forceps in labor. Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified, p. 3.

“…her womb was going to burst…”

Barker, F. (1858). On the comparative use of ergot and the forceps in labor. Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified, p. 4.

Holley, H. L., & Waters, A. L. (1982). The history of medicine in alabama. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, p. 27.

“…relax Anarcha’s womb…”

Holley, H. L., & Waters, A. L. (1982). The history of medicine in alabama. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, p. 27.

“…felt the twelve blades bite and slice…”

See “…scarificator and a cupping set,” above.

“There were two surgical options left…”

See “A forceps delivery…,” above.

I have estimated the price of a cesarean section, obviously a more invasive and complicated procedure. The varying costs for preternatural and instrumental deliveries come from an 1837 document from Lowndes County, Alabama, signed by several doctors who became Sims’s colleague when he moved to Montgomery in 1840. The document is held at the Montgomery County Archives in Montgomery, Alabama.

…the best doctor in Montgomery…”

See “…a fearful doctor, named Dr. Sims…” above.

In addition to Sims’s reputation, Henry, in Sims’s autobiography, specifies that it is for his instruments that he has called on his younger colleague.

SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 226-27.

 

“…poked a hole…”

This begins a thread that runs throughout the book—whether Sims recognized Anarcha as the girl that he later named as having treated him, or assisted in treating him, for malaria. While Sims did seem to speak fondly of Anarcha’s bravery in his autobiography and other documents, and nursing skills in private letters, he had to disown knowing too much about her because she was never fully cured as a result of his 1849 procedure, which is the pivotal moment of his entire career. (As will be seen shortly in the book, later documents from Woman’s Hospital in New York City reveal that Sims operated on her again at a later date.) This moment is speculative, but it is a way of rendering Sims’s deceit, which is logically inferred from the conflicting accounts he provides in readily available documents.