Taking
Roots and Giving Care
The remedies
or treatments created by slave healers were called "simples
and were a part of the domestic practices of both black and
white women on southern plantations. Slave healers knew where
to find plants and herbs, understood which parts of the plants
were useful, and knew when to collect them. They understood
the characteristics of a particular plant and what it could
be used to treat. They knew how to prepare the teas, poultices,
salves and balms.
Scholars
have described the specialized knowledge these slave healers
brought to the plantation environment and documented the oral
traditions that enabled them to retain the knowledge within
their communities and down through generations. Some of the
most common treatments used by slave healers to treat ailments
on plantations included the use of boneset, to create tonics
to treat colds and fever and Life everlasting from which a
tea was made to treat cramps, fevers, and use as a decongestant.
Pokeroot was another plant used to help relieve pain, treat
sores, and used as a laxative.
Scholars,
such as Sharla Fett, Todd Savitt, and Sara Cotton have documented
the absorption of black folk medicine into the medicinal practices
of white physicians, without having the source of that knowledge
attributed to slave healers. According to scholars, the origins
of black folk medicine were forgotten, ignored, or attributed
to the medicinal knowledge of white physicians of the times.
The uses of medicinal plants by slave healers were also deleted
from the historical record by the growth and dominance of
medical societies, which did not recognize the contributions
of African Americans to medical knowledge.
Slave
healers were not allowed to publish books or journals, form
medical societies, nor advertise their cures. Their treatments
were spread simply by oral tradition or through the assistance
and involvement of white physicians or planters.
The
following is a list of links to more detailed information
on the contributions of African-American healers prior to
emancipation, along with information on roots and herbs they
used to treat ailments.
Gullah
Culture: Folk Medicine List
Overview
of Medicineal Plants
and Traditional Medicine in Africa
Working
Cures: Healing, Health and Power
on Southern Slave Plantations
by Sharla M. Fett
Medicine
and Slavery
Todd L. Savit
Bodies
of Knowledge: The Influence of Slaves
on the Antebellum Medical Community
by
Sara Mitchell Cotton
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
