Thread by @z3dster

The story of how a doctor's cruel prank caused a riot in 1788 New York City

During the late 1700s in America medical students needed access to cadavers and had no refrigeration to keep them. What ends up happening is the students pay someone to go dig up the recently dead from their graves before they decomposed or do it themselves

For the most part they dug up African American and pauper graves knowing at the time there would be less resistance if discovered. However that didn't also prevent the digging up of the more well off recently deceased and it was common to keep a grave watch to prevent this

The African American community did appeal to the government to protect their graves but to little avail

For some reason during the summer of 1788 New York medical students got more brazen and started digging up bodies left and right.

The only medical college in NYC at the time, Columbia, was careful that no bodies they used were from within the city.

Of course the pauper and Black cemeteries were outside the city

But being the 1780s the medical college wasn't the only place medical research occurred.

Richard Bayley, future first health commissioner of NYC and writer of the federal Quarantine Act of 1799, also engaged...

...in medical research in two rooms he rented at New York Hospital.

April 16, 1788 the hospital was under repair and a ladder was leaned up against the two rooms rented to Dr. Bayley

A group of boys claimed the ladder to see what was happening inside

A doctor, John Hicks, inside doing a human dissection held up an arm to one of the boys and told him it was the arm of the boys recently deceased mother

The boy was obviously upset by this and ran to tell his father, a mason on Broadway.

His father ran to have his wife's grave opened.
They open the grave and find the body missing!

The father, now seething, collects his coworkers and starts marching towards the hospital and a mob forms of people joining to see what is happening

Once they reach the hospital they breaking and ransack it finding multiple bodies in various states of dissection

The mob grabs multiple doctors and students from the hospital and drags them into the street. At this point the mayor, James Duane, shows up and has the medical staff arrested..

..and taken to the prison for their own safety. The mob disperses but that night the story of the mob and what they say spreads throughout the city

The next day many doctors have gone into hiding for their own safety and a new giant mob forms

Parts of the mob ransack Columbia, before they enter Alexander Hamilton yells at them from the steps to try to keep them from entering with no success
(@Lin_Manuel we need this song)

They find nothing as the medical students had moved the bodies into safe locations the night before

The mob moves to the jail

The mob breaks the windows of the jail and tries repeatedly to get in and pull the doctors out. Meanwhile those inside the prison take the broken bricks and sticks and protect themselves. Due to the nature of the jail they are able to keep the mob out

Eventually a person trying to climb into a window is pushed out and dies.

The Gov of NY, DeWitt Clinton, calls for a militia to form to deal with the mob. The militia is lead by General Baron von Steuben, a revolutionary war hero, and includes future SCOTUS Justice...

...and then Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay

The mob, having so far faced no real consequence for their actions, confronts the militia and throws stones at them, almost breaking John Jay's skull

Having had enough von Steuben orders two volleys of fire killing multiple..

..members of the mob, between 3 and 17.

The riot was routed and everyone went home

In response to the riot a formal system was created for medical cadavers, mostly the bodies of criminals

Also the first medical licensing system in the US was created to regulate doctors

More information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1788_doct…

smithsonianmag.com/history/gory-n…

thelancet.com/journals/lance…

ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/new-york-c…

google.com/books/edition/…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B…