Anarcha Westcott

Anarcha Westcott (c. 1828 – unknown) was an enslaved woman who underwent a series of experimental surgical procedures conducted by white physician J. Marion Sims, without the use of modern anesthesia (being sedated instead with opium during the surgeries, which also managed her pain), to treat a combination of vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula that had been caused by a traumatic child birth. Sims's medical experimentation with Anarcha and other enslaved women, and its role in the development of modern gynaecology, has generated controversy among medical historians.

In the 21st century, Anarcha has become a heroine for many Black women.