In the last post in the series we discussed how we can work with Herbal Allies to support our Autonomous Family Planning and reproductive journeys. That was an in-depth albeit broad overview of the different herbs and herbal actions that we can work with, for differing reproductive needs. In this article I will be going over the historical, traditional, current and controversial use of Cottonroot Bark for reproductive sovereignty and within the field of midwifery. This article (and the next article on Queen Anne’s Lace) is also part of a larger “Autonomous Family Planning: Natural Birth Control for Wild Womb-Carriers” three-part class that I offer.
If you are interested in working with this herb within the full-spectrum childbearing continuum as a plant medicine ally for yourself or others in your community, or of purchasing this plant medicine from me, I implore you to read this article and the “Additional Resources” provided within before doing so. This is provided particularly to potential customers from Etsy because Etsy has strict limitations on what “herbal information” we are allowed to provide within a product listing. This has only gotten worse since reproductive sovereignty and healthcare laws are changing seemingly overnight across the U.S. at the same time that the U.S. government and FDA are cracking down on holistic healthcare products and providers, supplement manufacturers, and small-scale herbal apothecaries. **Due to the nature of this information, and the risks now involved in disseminating this information, all articles in this series are held behind a pay wall**
This both protects the integrity and safety of me and my work, my ability to create content that is censored elsewhere on other platforms (like on TT, IG, or on FB), and to support my community-based reproductive justice work.
Cottonroot & Slavery in America
I think it is best, and most important, to start with the state of affairs and the history that colonialism and slavery has had on the use of and public awareness of cottonroot bark as an herbal ally for reproductive autonomy, even though the history of this use (and its other medicinal applications as a whole plant) are ancient and found in North Africa, the so-called Middle East/Southwest Asia, and Southeast Asia/Indian folk healing and medicine traditions.
However, even as someone with an ancestral connection to this plant, as a white-passing majority-ethnic European American, I will not speak to this in my own words and will instead provide an in-depth article written by a Black American herbalist on this subject that I strongly request that you read. Understanding this history is *imperative* particularly for anyone who is providing reproductive care in their communities, or who is a midwife and utilizes this medicine in labor, who is -not- Black or Indigenous.
The key thing you need to take away about this and why it is such a controversial topic and imperative that you understand before working with this herb is that Cottonroot Bark was one of the few ways, and in some instances the only way, that Enslaved Black Women had to control their own reproduction when they were being separated from their husbands and children, experimented on by White “obstetricians”, and raped by slave owners/plantation overseers. The racism of the enslavement of Black Folk and the genocide of Indigenous Folk is the foundation of our nation and all the systems that have arisen from its founding (education, healthcare, judicial, police…). It has also had a direct impact on the belief of who ‘owns’ herbal knowledge and who has the privilege of access to these plant medicines, particularly for American or Western Traditional Herbalists.
Non-Black and non-Indigenous community care providers are particularly in need of deconstructing systemic racism within our selves, society, communities, and within the herbalism, medical and midwifery/reproductive health fields we work in (the latter of which where systemic racism is entrenched and causes, arguably, the most harm). Part of that anti-racism and decolonizing work is understanding the history of the herbal allies we want to, or do, work with in our practices and how we approach them and their medicine as well as their growth/harvest and the impact on these plants and their environments… how this impacts those in our communities actively affected by racism and genocide who have direct Ancestral connections to these plant medicines but have had them stripped from them… and our conscious or unconscious perpetuation of systemic racism, cultural and ethnic genocide, and ‘white savior’ complexes meant only to serve our own egos.
» To learn more about the use of Cottonroot Bark during Slavery and beyond within the Black Community’s herbal healing tradition, please read the following article:
"Gossypium spp. (Cotton Root Bark): A Symbol of Herbal Resistance" By Karen L. Culpepper
Two additional ways that I, as a non-Black herbal practitioner and traditional midwife with the privilege to have access to organically-grown/grow my own cotton for medicinecraft and to sell it in a market where it is almost impossible to otherwise obtain (whether root or tincture), include:
**SOLIDARITY:
If a customer or client is a Black-identifying person needing Cotton Root for themselves or others in their community, I provide 50% discounts on my cottonroot medicines and one-on-one reproductive support. I also share organically-grown cotton seeds for free when available for folks to grow their own medicine for their own communities.
**REPARATIONS:
If you are a White/non-Black community herbalist, birthworker, midwife, or reproductive justice activist I ask that you consider purchasing a bottle of cottonroot bark tincture to -donate- to a local Black herbalist/birthworker/midwife/repro healthcare provider in your community~
If you don't know someone in your own community and would like to have a bottle donated to someone within my network, you can check the [ Donate to BIPOC Repro Justice ] box during check-out on my Etsy — you will then NOT receive a physical item, and the tincture will be provided as a donation to someone in-need within my community network~
Picture of pink-hued heirloom Nankeen cotton bolls picked from the plants grown by Lyrra (@heymagdamagda) for my last batch of Cottonroot Bark Tincture
Cottonroot & It’s Medicine
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