Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Camillus Lanier

Camillus Lanier

Overview

Dr. Camillus V. Lanier was a physician who lived in Davie County, North Carolina, USA. He was interviewed by William Edward Hennessee in March 1939 as part of the Federal Writers' Project.

Biography

Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Camillus Lanier
Born	5 April 1816 Southern District, Halifax, Virginia, USA
Died	2 April 1872 Mocksville, Davie County, North Carolina, USA
Education	M.D., Jefferson Medical College, 1837
Occupation	Physician

Early Life

Dr. Camillus Voltaire Lanier was a physician born in the Southern District of Halifax County, Virginia in 1816. He was born to an upper class family of agnostic atheists that influenced much of his own philosophy and action in life. Lanier’s grandfather was a friend and follower of the French philosopher Voltaire and took great pride in his freedom of thought. As a result, the same doctrine of agnosticism carried on through the family’s lineage. Above all faith, Dr.Lanier valued the principles of liberty and personal freedom, even if it necessitated the sacrifice of his own happiness. After making the decision to free his slaves, which cost him his family’s ancestral land, Lanier’s popularity fell drastically. In an effort to deter the bitterness of his neighbours in Mecklenburg County, VA, Dr. Lanier and his family moved to Davie County, North Carolina in 1851 where Lanier’s views were more accepted among the residents.

Medical doctor cares for patient, 1893

Family

Lanier was married to Harriet Speed, who became an influential figure in his life. Speed was a pious woman who loved her husband despite his starkly contrasting values. In addition, Lanier’s wife was a compassionate person who would go each day to the patients her husband treated and gift them with food and bandages that they needed out of charity. Harriet’s passing left Dr. Lanier alone with his six children but lacking in the same passion that he carried during his wife’s lifetime.

Beliefs

Dr. Lanier was unique for his time in his unquestioned denial of the existence of any supernatural. On one instance that occurred during his tenure at medical school, Lanier was mistakenly locked inside a laboratory containing several human cadavers. After being found the next morning lying peacefully on a dissecting table, Lanier laughed when asked if he had felt fear at being alone with the corpses. Instead, he remarked on his interesting experiment on the cadaver free of any instructors or classmates in which he found absolutely no space for a soul in the entire body. Throughout his lifetime, Lanier was renowned for his bravery in the face of frightening and seemingly supernatural situations.

Career

Throughout his career, Dr.Lanier was a dedicated physician who was committed to the service of his patients. He would often stay with them until he could relieve their suffering in any way. In many cases, Dr. Lanier avoided charging his patients the full value of his treatment and would settle for the few dollars they were capable of paying in addition to a share of their crops. During the civil war, Lanier refused to join either side and instead treated all soldiers the same regardless of their standing. Outside of his medical practice, Dr. Lanier was just as ready to defend his own values. On one occasion, when a local criminal known as Cliff Kennedy abused a young girl from an impoverished background, Dr. Lanier is called to treat her wounds. Hearing of the girl’s story, Lanier travels to Kennedy’s house and personally strikes him with his whip as retribution for all of his acts. Lanier’s compassionate, but valiant spirit earns him a place as a respected and feared hero in Davie County.

Historical Issues

Civil War

From the years 1861 to 1865, the American Civil War dominated the life and politics of both the North and South. Unlike most Southern aristocrats at the time, Dr. Camillus Lanier refused to support the Confederate Army and was staunchly against the practice of slavery. Instead, Lanier adapted a universalist approach to the conflict and resolved to help all soldiers who were injured rather than just those who fought for the Confederacy. Even before adapting civil war medical techniques, Dr. Lanier was ahead of his time in the practice of boiling medical instruments, the use of heat as a remedy, and in the administration of anaesthetics. The greatly increased demand for medicine during the civil war meant that “Rank and file physicians were exposed to ideas learned overseas as the elite of American medicine, who had long championed pathological anatomy and experimental medicine, moved from the periphery to the center of wartime medicine." In this way, the civil war for Lanier was an opportunity to further his humanitarian ideals through medical care.

Opposition to Slavery

Contrary to the popular support held in favor of slavery in the Confederacy, Camillus Lanier was one exception to this practice. As a result of his refusal to own slaves as property, he sacrificed his family’s land and steadily faced losses each year. With the money he had, Lanier paid the slaves whom he had once owned as a way of providing them with the means of livelihood. In the Southern United States, the institution of slavery was the casuse of major contention and resulted in the “domination of southern society by the slave issue." The economic dependence on slavery promoted certain industries and held back those that were not advantaged by slave labor. The institution of slavery “gave immense advantages to slaveholders and imposed corresponding handicaps on non-slaveholders, leading to a grossly unrepublican society with extreme disparities of wealth and political power among whites." The widespread nature of slavery hindered the success of those like Dr. Lanier who rejected the practice on humanitarian grounds and furthered the inequality between classes of society.