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Struggle & ResistanceAchievement & Excellence

January 1852

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Oppression
Grave-robbing Black cemeteries for dissection

Nineteenth-century medical schools relied on bodies stolen from Black cemeteries for dissection — at the Medical College of Georgia, the work was done by an enslaved man, Grandison Harris.

Resistance
William Still's Vigilance Committee

Philadelphia reorganizes its Vigilance Committee under William Still, who begins the record-keeping that becomes the UGRR's defining archive.

Events

  1. 1852
    William Still's Vigilance Committee

    Philadelphia reorganizes its Vigilance Committee under William Still, who begins the record-keeping that becomes the UGRR's defining archive.

  2. c. 1852
    Grave-robbing Black cemeteries for dissection

    Nineteenth-century medical schools relied on bodies stolen from Black cemeteries for dissection — at the Medical College of Georgia, the work was done by an enslaved man, Grandison Harris.

Resources from this period