The Underground Railroad

Chapter 12 Summary

The beginning of this chapter finds Aloysius Stevens in the anatomy house of the Proctor Medical School. We are told that this school is not as selective as the more prominent medical schools in Boston. Stevens works at the Proctor Medical School at night to meet the terms of his fellowship. His job is to open the door to the body-snatcher, Carpenter. Throughout the chapter, we receive hints that Stevens is financially struggling.

Carpenter usually delivers his cargo just before sunrise. Tonight, however, he arrives at midnight. Stevens rushes to greet him. Carpenter and his man Cobb await him in the driver’s seat of a cart. Stevens boards the cart with his tools. Stevens feels resentful about having to miss guest lectures because of his work post. He begrudges the fact that most of his peers come from wealthy families.

Cobb informs Stevens that they are going to Concord. A camaraderie has sprung up between the rough-and-tumble Cobb and the medical student Stevens. Their friendship, uneasy at first, has blossomed through their work: illegal grave robbing. The two have found kinship in their mutually rapscallion ways. When Carpenter asked Stevens to join him on a grave robbing mission one night, Stevens did not hesitate to join him.