GRAVE ROBBERS AND DISSECTION LABS: THE NIGHTMARES OF 19TH CENTURY AMERICA.

We have all identified with “things that go bump in the night.” Generations of Americans have shared similar nightmares, mostly about fictional creatures, ghouls and monsters. Our nightmares are especially chilling when the ghouls show up in graveyards. Much of our pop culture has centered around the dark side of myths or legends: the vampires, ghosts, and the headless horsemen. The body snatchers, those shadowy figures lurking about in graveyards at night, have become entwined with these myths and legends. In the 19th century a generation of Americans were nervous, even anxious, when the topic of discussion was about grave robbing, some even saying they were “afraid to die,” because of what might happen to them afterwards. The creatures of the night, these body snatchers, were not mythical creatures. They were the subject of many nightmares and became The Boogeyman to an entire nation – – and they were real.

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