THE BOILING WATER TREATMENT

During the 19th century, there was a belief that black people could not experience pain due to them being viewed as less than human.

 

In the 1840s, there was a typhoid pneumonia outbreak, and Dr. Walter Jones tried finding a cure by pouring boiling water in 1846 on physically sick, enslaved individuals who exhibited symptoms, such as dry cough, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, and fatigue. He would pour this boiling water every four hours because he believed it would stimulate the capillaries. Most of the victims were adolescents or young adults as their ages ranged from 15 to 30 years. These enslaved people were forced to be part of these experiments, and Dr. Jones did not care to have their consent.

 

In one case, he reported pouring 5 gallons of boiling water on the back of a 25-year-old male and even discussed how amazed he was at how many of his subjects were not screaming, which reinforced ideas about black people not being human. However, as it is commonly known today, due to the evolution of medical perceptions of black individuals over the centuries, people exhibit pain in different ways, and that includes going mute when going through extreme levels of suffering.

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References: 

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Jones, W.F. (1854). On the Utility of the Applications of Hot Water to the Spine in the Treatment of Typhoid Pneumonia. Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal Volume 3.

 

Roberts, C. (2022). The History of Heath Inequities Among African Americans. California State. https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/tf-witness-roberts-statement-012722.pdf

 

Washington, H. A. (2010). Medical apartheid: the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. Paw Prints.