“But night doctors weren’t just fictions conjured as scare tactics. Many doctors tested drug on slaves and operated on them to develop new surgical techniques, often without using anesthesia. Fear of night doctors only increased in the early 1900s, as black people migrated north to Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and news spread that medical schools there were offering money in exchange for bodies. Black corpses were routinely being exhumed from graves for research and an underground shipping industry kept schools in the North supplied with black bodies from the South for anatomy courses. The bodies sometimes arrived, a dozen or so at a time, in barrels labeled turpentine” (Skloot 166).
I like this passage because not only it shows that there is some truth behind the myth of the night doctors, but also because it illustrates Rebecca’s writing style. She successfully engaged me as a reader and caught my attention. Every time I pick up the book for a reading session I some across some passage that I think to myself “I have to tell everyone I know about this!” Her meticulous research brings this real story to life, and the way she developed her characters makes me fell like I am watching a movie in 3-D. She successfully combines scientific research with personal perspective. As I am approaching the end of the book I often find myself asking how come I haven’t read this book before. This is definitely a must read for everyone who enjoys good writing about facts with a flavor of fiction.
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