January 1850

Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850 admits California as a free state, organizes Utah and New Mexico territories under popular sovereignty, abolishes the slave trade in DC but not slavery itself, and — crucially — enacts the brutal new Fugitive Slave Act. Black leaders correctly perceive the Fugitive Slave Act as the central, devastating element of the deal.

Between 1845 and 1849, physician J. Marion Sims repeatedly operated on at least 11 enslaved Black women — including Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy — without anesthesia while developing a surgical repair for vesico-vaginal fistula. Sims operated on Anarcha alone at least 30 times. He justified withholding pain relief by claiming Black people felt less pain — a racist medical myth that persisted for generations. He was later celebrated as the "father of modern gynecology."