Mary
placed his hand back on his chest and remembered how those wounds from the
thorny bushes had prompted her to bring the slippery elm to soothe his
abrasions.
She
made a paste out of the crushed bark and water and then spread it over his
hands. He smiled.
“You
have a soft touch, miss.”
“’Tis
the slippery elm that is soft, sir. ‘Tis an old Indian medicinal.”
Excerpt from Road to Deer Run
When our ancestors came over on the Mayflower in 1620, it wasn’t
just the founding of the first successful white colony in the United States.
The date also signified the beginning of Colonial American medicine.
Onboard the Mayflower was a surgeon named Giles Heale who
returned to England after accompanying the passengers to the new world. But
William Bradford wrote that Dr. Samuel Fuller was surgeon and physician to the
Pilgrims. While the group brought many of their traditional cures from Europe, the
Native Americans taught the Colonials many new cures such as mashed cranberries
to use as a poultice for wounds.
One of the well-documented uses of Colonial medicine took
place when Edward Winslow brought medicinals to the dying Indian sachem,
Massasoit. Winslow’s detailed journal describes arriving at the bedside of the
Indian chief who had not swallowed anything for days. Seeing that Massasoit’s
tongue was swollen and “furred,” Winslow scraped off the “corruption” and
managed to get the chief to swallow a “confection of many comfortable
conserves.” The tribe noticed an immediate improvement in his condition.
Encouraged by this turn of events, Winslow searched for medicinal herbs and
managed to find only strawberry leaves and sassafras root, which he boiled and
strained. Massasoit swallowed the herbal drink and continued to recover.
Winslow wrote, “we, with admiration, blessed God for giving
His blessings to such raw and ignorant means, making no doubt of his recovery,
himself and all of them acknowledging us the instruments of His preservation.”
Indeed, it was often God that the colonists turned to for
healing of their maladies but gleaning the herbs of the land became a
supplement to their prayers.
Most women learned the uses of numerous medicinals to help
their families recover from illness. Hyssop for respiratory ailments, yarrow to
stop bleeding, slippery elm for wounds and stomach distress, mint for
headaches—the list is long and each herb often had multiple uses.
While these plants were often beneficial, excessive use
could prove dangerous, even deadly.
Multiple herbs and treatment, including bleeding, were
described in a small book called “Every Man his own Doctor” or “The Poor
Planter’s Physician.” It was written anonymously by a practitioner in Virginia
in order to help the poor survive their illnesses. It was quite popular in the
colonies, especially for those without access to a physician.
Medicinals in Colonial America are fascinating to study,
especially since many are still used in homeopathic teas and other
preparations. Colonial medicine lives on.
