learned to mistrust the medical system, which they perceived as meaning them no good and possibly meaning them harm. Once they were able to be admitted to hospitals under the separate but equal system, they feared that they might never come home again, so an admission to the hospital was looked upon rather ominously, like a death sentence instead of a chance to restore health.
Any trust in the medical system which was developed at that time was born out of desperation as well as from a carryover from slavery of a feeling of obligation and loyalty to the white man. Black people had been conditioned to do as they were told, and they complied blindly to medical orders rather than doubting or questioning the system. This kind of trust was not real; it was artificial and was based on fear, domination, and intimidation.
Another aspect of the early medical treatment of blacks which engendered mistrust for the system was the fear that blacks had of becoming unwilling and unwitting subjects of experimentation.
They had good grounds for this fear. During slavery, many famous white doctors bolstered their careers by giving public exhibitions of experimental medical procedures. These demonstrations were often performed out in an open square, as was the habit of Dr. J. Marion Sims, who is considered the father of American gynecology.
Dr. Sims, a white man who never graduated from medical school, would openly display surgical and gynecological conditions in slave women while he lectured to the audience about