John Staige Davis

Item

Name

John Staige Davis

Given Name

John Staige

Family Name

Davis

Birth Date

1824-10-01

Death Date

1885-07-17

Sex

Male

Occupation

Teaching

University of Virginia professor

Professor of Medicine

Description

John Staige Davis (October 1, 1824 - July 17, 1885) was white enslaver and Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia from 1847-1885. He was the son of John A. G. Davis, a law professor who was shot and killed by a student in 1840. J. S. Davis preferred to provide practical anatomical instruction to his students and resorted to grave robbing to source cadavers. He stole the bodies of African Americans, the poor, and executed convicts. In 1859, he requested the bodies of the men sentenced to be hanged after John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry but was denied. During the Civil War, Davis served as a Confederate surgeon in Charlottesville. He died of pneumonia and is buried in the University of Virginia Cemetery.

Child of

John A. G. Davis