A compelling reckoning with the birth of women’s health that illuminates the sacrifices of a young woman who changed the world only to be forgotten by it―until now.

For more than a century, Dr. J. Marion Sims was hailed as the “father of modern gynecology.” He founded a hospital in New York City and had a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the world’s first celebrity surgeons. Statues were built in his honor, but he wasn’t the hero he had made himself appear to be.  Sims’s greatest medical claim was the result of several years of experimental surgeries―without anesthesia―on a young enslaved woman known as Anarcha; his so-called cure for obstetric fistula forever altered the path of women’s health.

One medical text after another hailed Anarcha as the embodiment of the pivotal role that Sims played in the history of surgery. Decades later, a groundswell of women objecting to Sims’s legacy celebrated Anarcha as the “mother of gynecology.” Little was known about the woman herself. The written record would have us believe Anarcha disappeared; she did not.  Through tenacious research, J. C. Hallman has unearthed the first evidence of Anarcha’s life that did not come from Sims’s suspect reports. Hallman reveals that after helping to spark a patient-centered model of care that continues to improve women’s lives today, Anarcha lived on as a midwife, nurse, and “doctor woman.”

Say Anarcha excavates history, deconstructing the biographical smoke screen of a surgeon who has falsely been enshrined as a medical pioneer and bringing forth a heroic Black woman to her rightful place at the center of the creation story of modern women’s health care.

About the Author

J.C. Hallman grew up in Southern California. He studied writing at the University of Pittsburgh, the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Hallman’s nonfiction combines memoir, history, journalism, and travelogue. His first book, The Chess Artist, tells the story of Hallman’s friendship with chess player Glenn Umstead. His second, The Devil is a Gentleman, is an intellectual apprenticeship with philosopher William James. In Utopia explores the history of utopian literature in the context of visits to six modern utopias in various stages of realization. Wm & H’ry examines the copious correspondence of William and Henry James. And B & Me is an account of Hallman’s literary relationship with Nicholson Baker.

Hallman has also published a book of short stories, The Hospital for Bad Poets, and edited two anthologies of “creative criticism,” The Story About the Story and The Story About the Story II. Among other honors, Hallman was a recipient of a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship in fiction, and a 2013 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in the general non-fiction category.

In 2015, Hallman discovered the first evidence that proved the existence of the young, enslaved woman known as Anarcha, the so-called first cure of the diabolical “father of gynecology,” J. Marion Sims. In making significant contributions to the histories of slavery and medicine, Hallman’s dual biography, Say Anarcha, excavates and centers Anarcha’s story, and provides a much-needed corrective to the false narrative of Sims’ career.

This event will be moderated by Rachelle Chase, author of Creating the Black Utopia of Buxton, Iowa and Lost Buxton, who has given more than 120 presentations about the amazing town of Buxton and has appeared in the media—radio, television, news publications, and documentaries—more than 60 times. Her latest book, a historical fiction book for middle grade students, is targeted for release in 2024. She’s also a published romance author who, while writing romance, created and co-hosted an online writing contest for aspiring romance writers (which resulted in numerous writers landing agents and book deals) and hosted two popular podcasts featuring bestselling authors that amassed more than 19,000 profile views and 40,000 listens. Until recently, she was a columnist at the Des Moines Register and, in 2021, a reporter for Iowa Starting Line covering Waterloo. In 2021, Rachelle launched a nonprofit, Uniting Through History and invites you to join their monthly History Book Club for adults. For more information, visit UnitingThroughHistory.org. and RachelleChase.com.