He was deemed unfit for procreation—his father gave him to the strongest enslaved woman in 1859. They labeled him defective during his youth, and at 19, after three doctors had examined his frail body and reached identical conclusions,

“Distinctly below normal,” he muttered as he wrote. “Prepubescent in appearance and texture. H.”

When he had finished, he helped me get dressed and called my father back into the room.

“Judge Callahan,” said Dr. Harrison, settling into a leather armchair. “I’ll be direct. Your son’s condition is not simply a constitutional weakness. He suffers from what we call hypogonadism, a