Book Review: Searching for Dr. Harris: The Life and Times of a Remarkable African American Physician

Searching for Dr. Harris: The Life and Times of a Remarkable African American Physician. By Margaret Humphreys. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2024. Softcover, 322 pp. $22.95.

Reviewed by Aaron Stoyack

Searching for Dr. Harris is the product of Margaret Humphreys’ investigation of a man with an incredible story, whose path to success largely remains a mystery. Neglected on lists of the few Black doctors known during the Civil War era, Joseph Dennis (J. D.) Harris’s position with the Freedman’s Bureau in Richmond was discovered by Humphreys. In a progression familiar to most historians, what began as an offshoot of other research became a larger project, culminating in this excellent work.

The introduction recounts this advancement while providing an outline of J. D. Harris’s life and an explanation for how he could have risen to prominence. Readers would be remiss to see this as a summary of the rest of the book, as the author conceals dramatic and startling developments during the doctor’s later life until the narrative reaches the appropriate point. Chapters hover around twenty pages, each marking a distinct period or, in two cases, outlining aspects of Harris’s ideology. Details are sometimes told out of sequence due to necessity; for instance, explaining a position Harris applied for and then delving into what the application reveals about his experience.

Dr. Harris’s only published writings are a poem and a travel account promoting the immigration of free Blacks to the Caribbean. His other documents likewise contain little to no biographical information. Letters written by his family, seldom to him, are one of several uncovered windows, from the outside looking in, that reveal his opportunities, talents, and shortcomings.

Despite the scant sources, Humphreys does a marvelous job of speculating, offering multiple possibilities based on potential, but unproveable leads. She grounds the narrative with context utilizing the experiences of other free Blacks, locations, and institutions to suggest the environment Dr. Harris likely operated in. She delineates the sources for her claims at every opportunity. Mysteries such as how J. D. learned to read and speak French and gain trade skills cannot be answered with certainty, but Humphreys goes to remarkable lengths, even tracing the genealogy of other residents of J. D.’s hometown, to make potential explanations.

Humphreys has extensive experience writing about medicine, race in the South, and the Civil War with several previous books, including: Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War, Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the American Civil War, Yellow Fever and the South, and Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States. This meticulous piece of research is accessible to historians and newcomers alike. Those unfamiliar with race, medicine, and the free Black experience need not shy away, as the author proactively addresses questions on the reader’s mind before they even appear.

As to the Civil War, there is little engagement with the war itself, although elements of Reconstruction aid and politics are prominent features of the latter portions. The movement to colonize African Americans to other regions in the Western Hemisphere receives as much attention here as in any book that is not purely focused on the subject.

Searching for Dr. Harris is a superb examination of one man’s life as an entryway into antebellum and post-bellum issues of education, race, medicine, politics, and more. This micro-history succeeds in recounting how a Black man overcame great odds to become a physician during the time of slavery, recontextualizing what triumph looks like and what its components are for African Americans of this time period.