Fortune, his wife Dinah and their 3 children were slaves of Preserved Porter, a Connecticut bone doctor. In 1798, Fortune slipped from a rock on the west bank of the Naugatuck river, broke his neck and drowned. At the time, dissecting cadavers was illegal; but not applying to slaves, Dr. Porter cut him into pieces at the riverbank. At his office, he boiled the bones so that all flesh fell off, etched labels into them and used them as a medical training tool. Dr. Porter died 6 years later, listing the bones as worth $15 ($330 today).
Prior to his death, Dr. Porter used the bones to teach anatomy to his son; who used them to teach anatomy to his grandson; who used them to teach his daughter…135 years of generational doctors and wealth. In 1933, his name long forgotten, the family donated the bones to the Mattatuck Museum where they were displayed next to slave tools as “Larry the Slave”; a popular exhibit shown on their postcard; not taken down until 1970 when the Museum realized this was demeaning. They stored them in the basement.
In 1999, made aware of these bones in the basement, the NAACP and museum staff enlisted anthropologists and archeologists to examine them, ultimately determining this was Fortune. Based on bone density, he was a strong man who lived and worked with a broken back, hand and died of a broken neck.
On Sept. 13th, 2013, after being a slave, medical specimen, museum exhibit and archeological artifact spanning 275 years, Fortune was finally freed…laid to rest next to White society of his time…something that wouldn’t have been allowed when he died.
This is not an isolated story. Medical usage of Black and Indigenous people in ways prohibited of Whites was not uncommon. Since I still can't find my GG Grandfather (Ned Mills), Erica and I decided to make a donation to the Assoc for the Study of African American Life & History, as well as to make a regular pilgrimage here to leave flowers for Fortune.
Black History is American History and Black Lives Matter. If not to you, I got this. My actions will show they always have and still do…no statute of limitations. Now rest, Fortune.
