Can a man suffer further indignity after death? Mr. Fortune most certainly did. After a life of slavery and hard labor that included bringing children into that world, Mr. Fortune died.
Normally, I would imagine, dying brings some peace, and his death certainly should have brought some closure to Mr. Fortune’s most undignified life as a slave.
Enslaved or not, as a Christian man, I would have thought his fellow believers might have seen to it that he was laid to rest upon his death. But no, he would be subjected to further indignity and inhumane treatment when his owner boiled the flesh off his bones, so that he could use Mr. Fortune still.
Visiting colleagues of the slave owner no doubt pawed Mr. Fortune’s remains for years until Mr. Fortune was humiliated again.
According to a recent article in the New Haven Register, he was shipped to Germany so his skeletal puzzle could be fitted together and displayed “properly,” I am guessing. He eventually returned to Connecticut, but somewhere in his journey, parts of him - two ribs, bones from his hands and feet - were lost. Poor Mr. Fortune was not laid to rest when he came back here; he was put on public display in a museum.
It took a long time, but I was glad to read that museum professionals are reconsidering the practice of treating our fellow human beings as objects to be stared at. How many anthropological scholars vs. grammar school children actually gaped at Mr. Fortune’s remains over the many years he remained above the earth?
Mr. Fortune’s sad journey is about to come to an end but not before one last humiliation. The anthropology department at Quinnipiac University and the New Haven Register showed a complete disregard for Mr. Fortune and his family, who no doubt will someday see their ancestor’s body parts displayed on the front page of the newspaper with the unbelievably insensitive caption over his picture, “Final Respects.”
Final respects, indeed. Careful readers of the newspaper will remember just two weeks ago, a story about Quinnipiac’s new medical school. Specifically, the article included an appeal for people to donate their bodies or those of their family members for study. I wrote to the university asking for more information about that and am now reconsidering.
How is it that there could be a complete disconnect between academic disciplines (anthropology and medicine) under one roof? Can the School of Medicine teach the anthropologists and archaeologists a thing or two about the dignity of all human beings in and after death? Or must potential cadaver donors worry that a photograph of their remains may one day end up on the front page of the newspaper?
To the family of Mr. Fortune and his descendents, please know that not all Connecticut residents condone how your forefather was treated. Many of us were saddened and personally touched by Mr. Fortune’s life, now that we know more about him.
Ruth G. Torres
West Haven