HERBALISTS WITHOUT BORDERS INTERNATIONAL
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • HWB VISION & VALUES
    • HWB BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    • CORE COORDINATORS
  • OUR WORK
    • PEOPLE'S CLINICS >
      • INT'L BORDERLESS MEDICINE
      • VETERANS RESILIENCY HOLISTIC CLINIC
    • COMMUNITY SUPPORTED HERBALISM
    • HWB SEED GRANTS >
      • HWB 2023 SEED GRANTS
    • NOURISHING COMMUNITY GARDENS >
      • HWB Gardens Project
    • MEDICINAL SEED SAVING
    • TRAUMA TRAININGS
  • OUR MEMBERS
    • ABOUT OUR CHAPTERS >
      • FIND A CHAPTER
    • SCHOOL MEMBERS
    • A-G BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • H-P BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • Q-Z BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • DONORS & SPONSORS
  • GET INVOLVED
    • DONATE >
      • DONATE SUPPLIES
    • JOIN AS A MEMBER TODAY
    • RENEW TODAY
    • VOLUNTEER
    • OTHER WAYS TO GIVE
  • BLOG
  • News/Media
    • HWB NEWSLETTERS
    • eGUIDES
    • HERBAL ACTION WEBINARS & PODCAST
    • HWB IN THE NEWS
    • MEDIA INFO/DOWNLOADS
    • RESOURCES & LINKS
  • Member Portal
    • Full Member Portal Home >
      • Member Portal Resources
      • Members Only Blog
      • HWB Member Seed Grants 2023
    • Coordinator Portal Home >
      • Coordinator Materials
      • Coordinator Templates
      • Coordinator FAQs
      • Coordinator Calls
      • HWB Seed Grants 2023
      • Quarterly Report
      • Coordinator Calendar 2023
    • Core Volunteer Portal
    • 2nd Fridays Volunteer Hangout
    • Clover Member Level Portal
    • HWB Board of Directors Portal

Book Review: The Secret Cures of Slaves

2/5/2021

0 Comments

 

Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth – Century Atlantic World 
by Londa Schiebinger

Picture
Review by Lucretia Jones
January 2021

This book is an in-depth historical study of questionable medical experimentation and ethics during the transatlantic enslavement of Africans. The author examines the years of 1760 to the mid-1800s and details the relationships between enslaved Africans, Amerindians, and European colonialists and medical practitioners. The increasing popularity of science is discussed amidst the overt and subtle backdrop of a treacherous period in human history with effects that stretch into our present day. 
​
I appreciate the compilation of journal entries and medical papers written by physicians of the time. I especially enjoyed the quotations gleaned from direct contact with enslaved Africans. I found myself amused when presented with colonial doctors’ awe and simultaneous befuddlement at the efficacy of various cures employed by Amerindians and enslaved Africans. One such cure being a remedy for tetanus made by an enslaved healer on the former Governor of Cayenne’s plantation, a combination of plants kept hidden and therefore untested through scientific method. There is another instance of an “Indian woman” whose remedy for snakebites was “always” successful, her cure also undocumented. 

While understandable and necessary in the retelling of such atrocities, I found the author’s matter of fact tone a bit chilling and disconcerting. Be advised, this book is focused more on an academic look at a period in our collective history rather than moral commentary. I admit a personal bias; I like my plant books with pictures and drawings of plants. You won’t find that here. Instead, a few maps detailing the routes of human trafficking and barriers to shared information await you. The title is a clever misnomer. We aren’t being let in on any secrets here; rather we are witnesses to the chagrin and racialism of colonial doctors. 

Overall, while not what I expected, or perhaps naively hoped for, I will most likely find myself returning to this book for historical reference. If you’re looking for a compendium of folk remedies, I advise you to look elsewhere for insight from those more intimately involved with enslaved Africans and their descendants. Those wielding violent power over another group of human beings close themselves off from knowledge of the very cures implied in the title of this book. The story telling in Secret Cures is extensive enough that it allows us to assemble a narrative and successfully frame our sense of the era. If any conclusions are to be drawn by Ms. Schiebinger’s book, one might be the necessity of and complexity inherent in cross cultural oral tradition.


Picture
Lucretia is a wise woman herbalist, artisan, mother, companion, community garden member, and owner of House of Lukaya, an online source for herbal remedies and handicrafts. In 2015, Lucretia established the DC chapter of Herbalists Without Borders, and recently published the House of Lukaya Guide to Nourishing Herbal Infusions. As a community herbalist, she offers guidance using the Seven Medicines model, as well as field walks, tincture tastings, and home remedy workshops. https://www.houseoflukaya.com/

pinterest secret cure of slaves
0 Comments

    HWB Blog

    Keep up with the latest!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2015

    Categories

    All
    About HWB
    Allergies
    Apothecary
    Articles
    Beginner Level
    Books
    COVID-19
    Desktop Calendars
    Downloads
    EDUCATION
    EGuides
    Featured Business Member
    Featured Chapter
    Featured Member
    Featured School Member
    Feature Friday
    Feature Writers
    Free People's Clinics
    Healthy Living
    Herbal Action Podcast
    Herbalism
    HWB Board
    HWB Events
    Hydrosols
    Key Issues
    Learn About Herbalism
    Level 0: Good For All Levels
    Level 1: Beginner
    Membership
    MONOGRAPH
    Monthly Book Review
    News
    Newsletter
    Seed Companies
    Stories
    Tips Tuesday
    Trauma Events
    Wellness Wednesday
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

    @herbalistswithoutborders

    Tweets by hwbglobal


    Please note that if you post a comment just to share your own personal links or spam, your comments will not be approved. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF HWB.

HWB is a 501c3 NGO nonprofit. Our nonprofit is a global member network of of herbalists, medicinal plant growers, herbal educators, alternative holistic modality practitioners and others dedicated to herbal health access for all, medicinal plant conservation, health justice and more. 

Our international headquarters office is in NY and our US Donation Distribution Network is based in Wisconsin. Please email for our mailing address to ship donations.

Find us

Contact Us

HWB: Serving Communities Since 1995. 
Herbalists Without Borders™
Herbalists Without Borders©

©1999-2023, all rights reserved.

SEARCH

Home
About Us
​Our Work
Find a Chapter
Join as a Member
Donate
Newsletters
​
Main Blog
Privacy Policy
Password Protected Areas (must be logged in to access): 
Members Only Page
Members Only Resources
Members Only Blog

​Clover Member Page
​Coordinator Home Page 
2023 Seed Grant Kits
Google Translate
Visit the Herbalists Without Borders™ Bookshop Page (affiliate link).
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • HWB VISION & VALUES
    • HWB BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    • CORE COORDINATORS
  • OUR WORK
    • PEOPLE'S CLINICS >
      • INT'L BORDERLESS MEDICINE
      • VETERANS RESILIENCY HOLISTIC CLINIC
    • COMMUNITY SUPPORTED HERBALISM
    • HWB SEED GRANTS >
      • HWB 2023 SEED GRANTS
    • NOURISHING COMMUNITY GARDENS >
      • HWB Gardens Project
    • MEDICINAL SEED SAVING
    • TRAUMA TRAININGS
  • OUR MEMBERS
    • ABOUT OUR CHAPTERS >
      • FIND A CHAPTER
    • SCHOOL MEMBERS
    • A-G BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • H-P BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • Q-Z BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • DONORS & SPONSORS
  • GET INVOLVED
    • DONATE >
      • DONATE SUPPLIES
    • JOIN AS A MEMBER TODAY
    • RENEW TODAY
    • VOLUNTEER
    • OTHER WAYS TO GIVE
  • BLOG
  • News/Media
    • HWB NEWSLETTERS
    • eGUIDES
    • HERBAL ACTION WEBINARS & PODCAST
    • HWB IN THE NEWS
    • MEDIA INFO/DOWNLOADS
    • RESOURCES & LINKS
  • Member Portal
    • Full Member Portal Home >
      • Member Portal Resources
      • Members Only Blog
      • HWB Member Seed Grants 2023
    • Coordinator Portal Home >
      • Coordinator Materials
      • Coordinator Templates
      • Coordinator FAQs
      • Coordinator Calls
      • HWB Seed Grants 2023
      • Quarterly Report
      • Coordinator Calendar 2023
    • Core Volunteer Portal
    • 2nd Fridays Volunteer Hangout
    • Clover Member Level Portal
    • HWB Board of Directors Portal