[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
waz jus as good as de Doctors. Dey could git you well jus as quick as de Doc-
tor, sometime quicker.
Lizzie Norfleet (Mississippi) commented:
When the slave got sick, a doctor from Friars Point was sent for to tend them.
The old women on the place looked after them till they was up. The old
52 Chapter 3
women took care of the babies and children too. They had done learned about
different herbs and how to make tea out of them for the babies.
Ike Woodward (Mississippi) remembered:
When slaves got sick a Granny would look after em. Us niggers sho did get
good treatment when we was sick. You know white folks sho didn t want a nig-
ger o theirs to die they was worth somethin!
SLAVE MIDWIVES
African American women served a vital role as midwives. Fontenot (1994:
90) wrote, As providers of health care, African-American women domi-
nated the field of midwifery in the early history of obstetrics in the United
States. Slave midwives frequently served as medical providers on the plan-
tation serving as folk doctors, root women, religious ritualists, healers,
herbalists, among other roles. They served both White and African Ameri-
cans. The narrative of Sampson Willis (Texas) provided an example:
Aunt Aggie was the mid-wife for the whites and colored. That is, she waited on the
po whites folks who had no slaves. When any of us got sick Marster Jimmey seed
to it that we got medicine. He made us gather roots and herbs to keep on hand for
making out the medicines. I don t just exactly remember all of it, cept I do know
what we used for chest colds and sore throat. We gathered jimpson weeds, put
them in a pot with some water, and boiled it down to an ooze, then mixed equal
parts of lamp-oil, quinine, turpentine and camphor and made a salve of it and
with this we would saturate our chest an throat. This is a good medicine till yet.
Being a midwife was more than a medical role. Commenting on the im-
portance of midwives, Martin (2000: 71) wrote,
It can be assumed that she was a source of information for healing; a source of
information about family genealogies, both Black and White; a source of in-
formation about events and developments in the surrounding area, gathered as
she traveled; and source of moral wisdom for the community.
Delivering children was a hazardous process. Savitt (1978: 117) wrote,
Childbirth was a dangerous procedure for both mother and infant, re-
gardless of race. Childbearing always involved a high degree of risk for the
mother, who had to go back into the fields and work almost immediately
after giving birth. Millie Barber of South Carolina recalled that women
would be in the fields working soon after giving birth:
De fact is I can t member us ever had a doctor on de place; just a granny was
enough at child birth. Slave women have a baby one day, up and gwine round
de next day, singin at her work lak nothin unusual had happened.
Slave Folk Practitioners 53
On plantations, people generally prized midwives for their lifetimes of ac-
cumulated wisdom on practical medical matters (Kiple and King 1981).
Midwives also stayed with and cared for the newborns and mothers follow-
ing birth (Martin 2000). Slaves relied on midwifery for a number of reasons.
According to Kiple and King (1981), it was more traditional and accepted as
a practice, planters were usually not that involved in the daily affairs of their
slaves, the cost of White medical care was too high or unavailable, and the
timing on birthing was less predictable. Cyntha Jones (Arkansas) recalled:
When I was twenty-one they had me fixed up for a midwife. Old Dr. Clark was
the one started me. I never went to school a minute in my life but the doctors
would read to me out of their doctor books till I could get a license. I got so I
could read print till my eyes got so bad. Old Dr. Clark was the one learned me
most and since he died I ain t never had a doctor mess with me.
In fifteen years I had 299 babies on record right there in Rison. That s where
I was fixed up at under five doctors. And anybody don t believe it, they can
go down there and look up the record.
Margaret Bryant (South Carolina) observed:
My Pa sister, Ritta One had that job. Nuss [nurse] the chillun. Chillun house.
One woman nuss [nurse] all the chillun while they ma in the field rice field.
All size chillun. Git the gipsy [gypsum] weed. Beat em up for worm. Give em
when the moon change. Take a bucket and follow dem. And tell the Doctor
how much a worm that one make and that one and count dem [them]. When
the moon change, do that. I have one born with caul. Loss he caul. Rat carry
em. Ain t here; he see nothin. [The custom seems to be, to preserve the caul.]
Child born feet fore-most see um too. [See spirit] Talk chillun? Put duh switch.
Put you Bull pen. Hab um [have them] a place can t see you hand before
you. Can t turn round good in there. Left you in there till morning. Give you
fifty lash and send you to work. You ain t done that task, man and woman lick!
Sarah Pittman of Arkansas stated:
My grandmother had a big old bay horse and she was midwife for the white
and the colored folks. She would put her side saddle on the old horse and get
up and go, bless her heart; and me and my cousin had to stay there and take
care of things.
It was common for plantation owners to hire out slaves, including mid-
wives, to other plantations. Plantation owners viewed this practice as a way
to supplement incomes. An example of a midwife being hired out was Aunt
Clara Walker (Arkansas), who recalled being hired out and delivering as
many White as African American children. She also indicated she was well
aware of her limitations and would call in a physician when the delivery
went beyond her abilities.
54 Chapter 3
Aunt Clara Walker (Arkansas) who claimed to be 111 when she was in-
terviewed, noted:
When I was 13 years old my ol mistress put me wid a doctor who learned me
how to be a midwife. Dat was cause so many women on de plantation was
catchin babies. I stayed wid dat doctor, Dr. McGill his name was, for 5 years. I
got to be good. Got so he d sit down an I d do all de work.
When I come home, I made a lot o money for old miss. Lots of times, didn t
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
