Juneteenth & Native Plants

This Juneteenth, we’re recognizing enslaved peoples’ knowledge of native plants and how this expertise was put into practice to gain freedom.

Running North, to the promised land, was a harrowing journey. One of the first challenges freedom seekers encountered was the local flora and fauna. But, these were also a first resource. Self-liberators relied on their botanical knowledge of native plants for food, medicine, shelter, and survival.

Sweet gum leaves treated infections. Pawpaws were nutritious. And Wild Lettuce helped women control their menstrual cycles as they fled to freedom.

Let’s take a minute to recognize the wisdom that these individuals had. African people were kidnapped, relocated to foreign lands, and forced to perform backbreaking work in depraved conditions. Yet, they and their descendants adapted to their surroundings and learned about the plants in their new environment (some Indigenous communities shared their knowledge). While many enslaved people were forbidden from reading and writing, they still had an education in the natural world. This is a form of agency and resistance.

So, while celebrating Juneteenth, we’re also noting the important relationships enslaved people and self-liberators had with the native plants around them. These plants helped support a basic human right: freedom.

Sources: National Park Service, UNC Chapel Hill, Smithsonian Magazine, Kentucky State University, Colonial Williamsburg, Adkins Arboretum, Pittsburgh Parks, Senator John Heinz History Center, African American Intellectual History Society, Washington State University, I Was Born A Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives Vol. 2, 1849-1866, Native Americans of the State of Delaware