A compelling reckoning with the birth of womenтАЩs health that illuminates the sacrifices of a young woman who changed the world only to be forgotten by itтАФuntil now
For more than a century, Dr. J. Marion Sims was hailed as the тАЬfather of modern gynecology.тАЭ He founded a hospital in New York City and had a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the worldтАЩs first celebrity surgeons. Statues were built in his honor, but he wasnтАЩt the hero he had made himself appear to be.
SimsтАЩs greatest medical claim was the result of several years of experimental surgeriesтАФwithout anesthesiaтАФon a young enslaved woman known as Anarcha; his so-called cure for obstetric fistula forever altered the path of womenтАЩs health.
One medical text after another hailed Anarcha as the embodiment of the pivotal role that Sims played in the history of surgery. Decades later, a groundswell of women objecting to SimsтАЩs legacy celebrated Anarcha as the тАЬmother of gynecology.тАЭ Little was known about the woman herself. The written record would have us believe Anarcha disappeared; she did not.
Through tenacious research, J. C. Hallman has unearthed the first evidence of AnarchaтАЩs life that did not come from SimsтАЩs suspect reports. Hallman reveals that after helping to spark a patient-centered model of care that continues to improve womenтАЩs lives today, Anarcha lived on as a midwife, nurse, and тАЬdoctor woman.тАЭ
Say Anarcha excavates history, deconstructing the biographical smoke screen of a surgeon who has falsely been enshrined as a medical pioneer and bringing forth a heroic Black woman to her rightful place at the center of the creation story of modern womenтАЩs health care.