The Night Doctors in Folk Belief and Historical Reality
For generations, an ominous warning had been used to instill fear and obedience in African-American
communities: “The Night Doctors will get you.” It was a means of
social control that combined elements of folklore and historical
experience; a scare tactic used at various times by slave masters,
white vigilantes and overly-protective parents alike. The night
doctors were terrifying figures, the boogeymen of their day, and the
stories surrounding them are rooted in a uniquely American folk tradition – a tradition shaped by the legacy of racial
violence and subjugation from the not-so-distant past. There are a number of regional variations to the night-doctor belief. The standard version begins with an unsuspecting individual traveling alone after dark. From out of the shadows a group of ghastly figures emerge, their faces concealed by crudely-stitched masks. To the unsuspecting victim they appear as ghosts, witches, devils or disfigured monsters. Some wear white lab coats. Consciousness is soon lost, the result of a hypodermic needle or chloroform-soaked rag. From here the true horror unfolds.
The victim is transported in a
hearse-like wagon, drawn by horses fitted with rubber shoe-pads to
muffle the sounds of their movement. They are taken to a dimly-lit
basement laboratory where faceless observers gather around an
operating table to witness unspeakable acts of human
experimentation, dissection and blood harvesting. A prolonged and
tortured death is the individual's ultimate fate, after which their
mangled remains are either kept as macabre trophies or else disposed
of as common medical waste. As far as scare stories go, it's
downright terrifying. Particularly due to the very real history that
surrounds it.
