In 1932, the United States Public Health Service wanted to study the natural history of untreated syphilis. It enrolled several hundred black sharecroppers in rural Alabama under the pretense of giving them free medical treatment. These men were followed for almost forty years even though syphilis could have been easily treated. These men were never told they had the disease and ended up passing it to their spouses. Some even had children born with congenital syphilis, and others ended up dying of complications of syphilis.
