Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 03/Aunt Granny (Lula) Russeau

Overview

Lula Russeau (Aunt Granny) was an African American midwife, who was interviewed for the Federal Writers’ Project.

Biography

Birth and Childhood

Lula Russeau, also known as Aunt Granny, was a midwife who was born on August 15,1861. Russeau lived at 426 East Washington Street, Eufaula, Alabama. Her mother came from Black Creek, Virginia and her father was from South Carolina. Russeau had superstitions and spiritual beliefs, for example when she saw a ghost, she turned her pockets inside out. Russeau also made homemade herbs, which she learned from her mother.

Adult Life

Lula Russeau was proud of being a midwife and the work that she did for other mothers. The hardest delivery Russeau assisted with was a woman who gave birth to a 20-pound baby that was dead. The doctor did not believe that the child was dead in the womb and thought Aunt Granny killed the baby during the birth. During another experience Russeau mentions how she used herbs to help with the mother’s labor instead of traditional medicine. Russeau did not agree with the doctor’s opinion, so she took matters into her own hands, and changed what she was supposed to give the mother in labor. The doctor told the midwife to give the mother quill, but Russeau gave her red peppers instead. She was right, and the baby came right out after the very long labor. Russeau made a huge impact on many women in labor. In her life she was taught to use herbs from her mother, and her mother did not go to traditional doctors. Therefore, Russeau and her mother would make their own medicine with herbs. She learned everything she knew from her mother. Russeau would use herbs as her medicine, and the herbs are what she used when she was helping other mothers in childbirth. As an African American woman, Russeau was not afraid to stand up to others when it came to her patients during their labor.

Social Issues

Midwifery

A midwife is usually a woman that helps another woman during childbirth. The midwife will also remain after childbirth to help the mother with the newborn. In the 19^th century women started to become midwives. To be a midwife you must have borne a child, witnessed a birth, and assisted a birth. In the 19^th century doctors were more highly ranked than midwives. Only the less fortunate would be attended by a midwife. Another word for an African American midwife is “Aunt Granny.” During the delivery the midwife would avoid vaginal tearing without any medical techniques for the mother in labor. If the fetus was not in a right position to continue the delivery the midwife would insert her hand into the uterus to turn the baby for it to be safe labor for both mother and newborn. Midwives were common in black communities in the 19^th century and have expanded significantly nationwide.

Folk Medicine

Medicine is always evolving, so back in the early 19^th century medicine was not as advanced as today.  Many midwives did not believe in doctors and traditional medicine. Some white and black communities would even refuse going to a doctor and instead made their own old herb homemade medicine.  In a town some of the less fortunate people could not afford a doctor, so they would then go to a midwife. A midwife was less expensive and would use their own type of medicine. Midwives used herbs as their go-to treatment. One herb that was known to be given to a pregnant mother in pain was yellow-root tea. It was recorded that “Yellow-root tea is good for the sick stomach, when a ‘oman is sick at er stomach when she was pregnant.” Herbal teas made the labor easier for bother mother and baby. Midwives trusted more in their own herbal medicine than in a doctor. One 19^th century individual said, “I still believes in them old homemade medicines, too, and I don’t believe in so many doctors. Herbal medicine was used by folk to treat others.

Bibliography

Bogdan, Janet. “Care or Cure? Childbirth Practices in Nineteenth Century America.” Feminist Studies 4, no. 2 (1978): 92-99. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177452.

Couric, Gertha. “Folder 9: Couric, Gertha (Interviewer): Mid-Wives Are Called Grannies.” Federal Writers Project Papers. Accessed July 13, 2021. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/03709/id/921.

Covey, Herbert C. African-American Slave Medicine: Herbal and Non-Herbal Treatments. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2007.

Johnson, Sharon. “Midwives: Acceptance Is Growing Nationwide.” The New York Times. June 19, 1979.

“Midwifery.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed July 14, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/science/midwifery.

Wilkie, Laurie A. "Granny Midwives: Gender and Generational Mediators of the African American Community." Engendering African American Archaeology: A Southern Perspective(2004): 73-100.

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