Slave Women and Folk Medicine
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 07:20:00 -0400
From: Bill Cecil-Fronsman
Subject: Query: Slave Women and Folk Medicine
I have a student who is interested in working on a paper on slave women
and their roles as herb doctors. She has identified Todd Savitt's book,
but not much else. Does anyone know of other works that would be
helpful?
Bill Cecil-Fronsman
Department of History, Washburn University, Topeka, KS 66621
Office: (913) 231-1010 x1317
Fax: (913) 231-1084
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 07:14:59 -0400
From: Junius Rodriguez
Subject: Query: Slave Women and Folk Medicine - four replies
You will find some references to
slave folk medicine in Lyle Saxon's
_Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of
Louisiana_.
Junius Rodriguez
Eureka College
Bill -
In my work on poverty in the great depression I came across several books
on the personal narratives of the slaves themselves. The "Classic Slave
Narratives" tell a great deal about the herb doctors from their own
perspective. If your student is interested in any more of these
narratives please let me know and I will provide a list.
Joy Cruz
University of Iowa
Rhetorical Studies, Communication Studies Department
Bill Cecil-Fronsman's student, who is searching for sources on slave women
as herb doctors, should try to get a dissertation recently completed at
Rutgers University by Sharla Fett; it's on slave women as medical
practitioners. Sorry I don't know the exact year the dissertation was
finished--probably 1994, possibly 1995. I heard her give a paper from the
dissertation research at a meeting of the Southern Association of Women
Historians a few years back; she had uncovered some fascinating material,
which she interpreted with great intelligence and subtlety.I heard just
recently that she joined the History Dept faculty at theUniversity of
Arizona this past fall; perhaps the student could contact her there.
Leslie Rowland
University of Maryland
I have done some in-depth research into the health and medical treatment
of antebellum Virginian slaves, and must say that it is unusual to find
much mention of slave women doctors/healers/herbalists beyond an
occasional planter reference to particular slave women attending births,
etc. Much more information seems to be available for lower south
plantations that had established hospitals where slave women served as
some of the primary staff. There is an account book of a free black
woman medical practitioner named Phebe Jackson in UVA's archives. There
also tends to be references to female slaves attending illnesses and
injuries before a doctor was actually called in various doctor's account
books. Secondary sources on the general topic are also scant. See:
Paul Finkelman, *Medicine, Nutrition, Demography, and Slavery* (1989),
Kiple and King, *Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora: Diet, Disease
and Racism* (1981), Savitt, *Fevers, Agues, and Cures: Medical Life in
Old VA* (1990), Savitt, *Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health
Care of Blacks in Antebellum VA* (1978), Savitt and James Young,
*Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South* (1988).
Hope this helps!
Laura Croghan
College of William and Mary
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 04:28:54 -0400
From: Karen Anderson
Subject: Slave women and folk medicine
Sharla Fett, whose dissertation on slave women healers was completed
in 1995, is on a post-doc in African American Studies at UCLA. Thereafter,
she will be at the Univ. of Arizona.
If anyone would like to reach her, please contact me directly.
Karen Anderson
Univ. of Arizona