Searching for Dr. Harris
The Life and Times of a Remarkable African American Physician
- 322 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Only available on web
Searching for Dr. Harris
The Life and Times of a Remarkable African American Physician
About This Book
This is the untold story of Dr. J. D. Harris, an African American physician whose life and career straddled enormous changes for Black professionals and the practice of medicine. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Harris served as a contract surgeon to the Union army and transitioned to a similar post under the Freedmen's Bureau, treating Black troops and freedpeople in Virginia. Margaret Humphreys not only narrates what we know about Harris but offers context to his remarkable journey, including how incredible it was that a young man born into freedom in a slave state learned to read when literacy for Black people was illegal. He was one of very few African Americans to become a doctor before Howard Medical School opened in the 1870s, a fact that both reveals the structural barriers to medical education for Black Americans and highlights how those structures weakened in the 1860s. Drawing on census records, court records, Civil War and Reconstruction documents from the National Archives, African American newspapers, and more, this book is a revealing look at the history not only of medicine in the southern United States but also of race and citizenship during one of the nation's most tumultuous eras.
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Half Title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 The Formative Years
- 2 The Migration to Ohio
- 3 Poetry and Politics
- 4 Revolution in Cleveland, 1858–1859
- 5 The Anglo-African Empire
- 6 Colonizing the Caribbean
- 7 The Great Transition, 1862–1864
- 8 Family Ties in Reconstruction, 1864–1869
- 9 Medicine and Politics, 1864–1869
- 10 Finding a Professional Home
- 11 A Roaring Fire, a Fading Light
- CONCLUSION
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index