The doctors' riot was an incident that occurred in April 1788 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where the
illegal procurement of corpses from the graves of the recently deceased caused a mass expression of discontent from poorer New Yorkers that was directed primarily at
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
s and
medical students
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
.
Background
By the end of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, roughly one fifth of New York City's population was
black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
, most of whom were
slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. Their low social standing allowed slaves' bodies to be buried only outside the city limits. Most often, they were buried in a few plots north of
Chambers Street, across the street from the Pauper's Cemetery, often with several bodies to a grave, in a site now marked by the
African Burial Ground National Monument, then known as the "Negroes Burying Ground".
Both cemeteries were close to
Columbia College, which housed the city's only
school of medicine. Taboos associated with the violation of corpses made it difficult to procure
cadaver
A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a Death, dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue (biology), tissue to ...
s for
dissection
Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...
and study and throughout the 18th century, the law considered dissection as a worse punishment than death. Many students and doctors would exhume bodies from the nearby graveyards because of the socially-marginalized status of their occupants. "Resurrection", as
body-snatching or
grave-robbing
Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave (burial), grave, tomb or crypt to steal Grave goods, commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefact (archaeology), artefacts or person ...
was called, was the cheapest, surest way to obtain the remains of the newly deceased, especially in the winter, when bodies decayed more slowly.
Riot
Because there was then no known method to preserve an entire corpse, thefts were performed hastily, often in winter to slow the rate of
decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...
. In the winter of 1788, the number of corpses being exhumed by students increased substantially. The activities of medical students and physicians, who were known colloquially as "Resurrectionists" in the black cemetery, were noticed by a group of
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
who, on February 3, petitioned the
Common Council to take action against it. The petition was largely ignored, and no effort was made to stop the unlicensed
exhumation
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...
s.
In April 1788, a group of children were playing outside the
New York Hospital, next to a room where a student of the physician
Richard Bayley, who was known to exhume corpses from the two cemeteries, was dissecting an arm. Bayley, born and bred in Connecticut, had received his medical education in England, where body-snatching was more common. There were whispers about him "cutting up his patients and performing cruel experiments upon the sick."
The student, John Hicks, waved the arm out at the children, telling a boy whose mother had recently died that it belonged to her. The boy ran home and told his father of that. He, after exhuming his wife's coffin and finding it empty, gathered a group of concerned citizens who marched to the hospital and began to mass around the building.
The mob eventually broke into the hospital and, after becoming incensed upon finding several bodies in various stages of mutilation, pulled
Richard Bayley's assistant
Wright Post and a number of his students into the street, where the mayor of New York City,
James Duane intervened and ordered them escorted to the jailhouse for protection.
A crowd of 2,000 people had gathered, and news spread of the horrors seen in the hospital, leading to widespread rioting, with the few physicians remaining in New York City being forced into hiding. A large group of rioters descended upon
Broadway, searching for John Hicks, who was felt by the crowd to be the main source of blame. As they assembled in front of the courthouse and threw rocks, militia and cavalry were called in to repel them. The riot lasted a few days, ceasing when
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Clinton sent the militia to patrol the streets until a calm environment was ensured.
At least three rioters and three militiamen died in the confrontation; some estimate up to 20 dead.
The protesters also destroyed all the available human specimens.
Effects
Public opinion of physicians in New York stood very low for many years, and while some students were brought to trial, Hicks was not among them. Post-mortem dissection was considered an indignity to the dead, and the city fathers even forbade using bodies abandoned in the rougher parts of the city. A year later, in January 1789, a statute was finally put into law in order to codify the proper treatment of corpses, with harsh punishments imposed for those who violated it. Anyone who broke the law would stand on the pillory or be publicly whipped, fined, or imprisoned.
See also
*
List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City
*
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.
18th century
*1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June ...
*
Burke and Hare murders
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
* , Historical article about the Riot.
History Box, The Doctor's Riot 1788 Description of the accounts of the riot
What Caused the Riot in Eighteenth-Century Having to Do With the Robbing of Graves and the Use of Cadavers in Medical Schools? Video on the causes of the riot
{{Riots in the United States (1607–1865)
Doctors' riot
1780s riots
Conflicts in 1788
18th century in New York City
1788
Events
January–March
* January 1 – The first edition of ''The Times'', previously ''The Daily Universal Register'', is published in London.
* January 2 – Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the fourth U.S ...
Riots and civil disorder in New York City
1788 crimes