Enslaved Africans and the Use of Natural Cures on the Caribbean Plantations

Africans were forcibly taken and brought to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations in the 1600s. They were not able to take any material possessions but, they carried the knowledge of their culture in their collective memories. Among such knowledge was that of natural cures for many illnesses. Some of these Africans were not just holders of information about herbs but were they were healers. Many of them became critical to the health of the enslaved on the plantations. They were also beneficial to the Europeans who were often stricken by the many tropical diseases in the Caribbean and also some that they brought. Thus they were utilized as workers in the few slave hospitals or what was called hothouses on the plantations. The healers would make natural medicines from herbs, barks, wisps and roots of trees. These were very helpful in curing many of the ailments of the people on the plantations. These herbs would also be utilized to make baths as well. Many of these cures were well known to the Africans in their homeland and they found them here in the Caribbean. They also experimented with others that they found in the Caribbean.

For a long time, there were no doctors in the rural areas and these enslaved Africans and afterwards, their descendants continued to use the herbs that were used by their ancestors to cure themselves. A few persons also set up what was called doctor shops in the early post-slavery period to dispense medicines made from these herbs, barks and roots. These natural cures carried over from the days of slavery have set the foundation for the natural medicine sector that we have today and many form the ingredients for some conventional medicine too. When we hear names such as cerasee, vervine, sarsaparilla, ram goat dash-a-long among many other natural cures we can credit our African ancestors for discovering their uses and for utilizing them. This is critical because many more enslaved persons would have died on the plantations simply because there was no other medicine provided for them. The plantation owners were only interest in extracting labour from them but did not cater to their personal welfare in any significant way. The gap in their health care was therefore filled by the enslaved Africans with knowledge and skills of making use of natural cures. Tributes should be pay to these natural unsung heroes of our past.

Vivienne Pitter, Phd. Historian and cultural specialist