Introduction to 'Women's Weeds: The hidden history of women in medicine'. This project is an Arts Council England funded audio installation summer 2023 at the Museum of the Home in London.

Women's Weeds

Women's Weeds: The hidden history of women in medicine — Introduction

The first European witch trials were for magick as heresy. In the 1350s, the Church sought and out and prosecuted learned sorcerers of text-based magicks. These were sorcerers accused of using demonic powers to achieve their own ends, but they controlled the demons they summoned, not the other way around.

Then in the 1420s, things began to change. It all started in the Pyrenees in 1424, in a mountain valley high in the Catalan range, where the local people believed there was a group among them who were following demons to go worship the Devil at night. This was an entirely new idea. These weren’t sorcerers controlling demons, these were people pledging fealty to demons—and not just any demon, the king Evil of them all: Satan. The Devil himself.

Women's Weeds: Witchcraft Chapter, Story 2 — Invention of the Satanic Witch

Cunning-folk were local community practitioners of common magicks who would help you for a small fee by telling fortunes, identifying thieves, inducing love, healing the sick, and—most importantly—curing the bewitched.

Within healing practice, the cunning-folk approach was to use magical rituals and charms to break the spells that might be causing your ailment, often with herbal remedies. The most significant distinction between cunning practice and traditional physician medicine, as understood at that time, was its Anglo-Saxon origins. This is the story of the important place cunning-folk held in mediaeval and early modern rural communities.

Women's Weeds: Witchcraft Chapter, Story 3 — Cunning Folk

Women’s work as village healers and midwives, and their methods of healing through spells and potions, made them vulnerable to attacks from the emerging medical profession, the state, and the Church. 

Women were supposed to endure the excruciating pain of childbirth as God’s punishment for Eve’s original sin. If suffering great pain in childbirth was considered part of being a good Christian woman, then helping with childbirth pain was seen as being in league with Satan. This is the story of who was persecuted—and and by whom—when doing the work of women's reproductive care.

Women's Weeds: Witchcraft Chapter, Story 4 — Magical Midwives

What truly stands out when studying the witch trials are the stark demographics of the accused. In the continental European witch-hunts, over 80% of the victims killed as witches were women. And when we get to the Essex witch-hunts in England of the 16th and 17th century, that figure leaps to a staggering 92% who were women. 

These numbers are overwhelming. And while there are many factors that contributed to this perfect storm of terror, these numbers tell us that it isn’t an option to ignore the role that gender played in these atrocities. This story delves into the evolving fears that gripped Western Europe during the 400-year horror that was the European witch hunts—and how the status of women in society fell dramatically as a result.

Women's Weeds: Witchcraft Chapter, Story 5 — Women Are Evil

Let's make our way to the 1700s garden. Our next journey will be a difficult one. As we enter the 1700s garden we will delve into the darkness of 18th-century Colonial Medicine. It is here where we discover the Amerindian and African stories of the colonial West Indies.

Women's Weeds: Colonial Medicine Chapter, Story 1 — Introduction

We will begin our first story of Colonial Medicine with the first people who lived in the colonies—the indigenous Amerindian peoples. 

Historians have found that the knowledge of remedies often came from female indigenous healers sharing what they knew with European male practitioners who had travelled to their lands. By reading between the lines of these texts written by European men, we can find an echo of their voice. There are hints of their agency in herbal healing and the transfer of medical knowledge in colonised regions. In this story, I will share what I’ve learned about the role of indigenous women healers in the West Indies.

Women's Weeds: Colonial Medicine Chapter, Story 2 — Amerindian Story

Because both the Amerindians and the Africans were enslaved together, the insufferable conditions of plantation work placed both groups in close cultural and intellectual contact throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. These networks formed for survival, food, and to share knowledge of cures within the society of the enslaved in which they all lived. The medical botany of the West Indies and surrounding colonies was shaped by the knowledge sharing of these two oppressed groups.

Women's Weeds: Colonial Medicine Chapter, Story 3 — African Story

The importance of Obeah to both the enslaved and the free Maroon Africans of Jamaica can be seen in the multiple roles Obeah held within these communities. At once a religion, a herbal healing practice, and a rallying point for resistance, Obeah has been largely misunderstood by the Europeans who tried—without success—to suppress its power.

In this story, I will share with you what I have learned about the very misunderstood practice of Obeah in the West Indies, specifically in Jamaica; the role of women within the craft; and the place Obeah-women held within enslaved communities.

Women's Weeds: Colonial Medicine Chapter, Story 4 — Obeah Women of Jamaica

*** Graphic & distressing content warning ***

This is the story of the secret power of a simple plant: the Peacock Flower. 

This plant has gone by many names: Barbados Pride, Red Bird of Paradise, Flower Fence, Paradise Flower, and even Flamboyant Tree. This plant enjoys prominent status as the national flower of Barbados, but many people don’t know the hidden story of what this plant meant to the Amerindian indigenous peoples, and later the Africans, of the West Indies. 

The beautiful shrub dazzles with red and yellow flowers—but its stunning flowers and pretty names camouflage its real secret: used by those who know, the Peacock Flower plant induces abortion.

This is the most difficult story in Women's Weeds. Here I will share the horrors endured by enslaved Africans and Amerindians in the West Indies—and to what lengths women went to prevent bringing children into this living hell.

Women's Weeds: Colonial Medicine Chapter, Story 5 — The Peacock Flower

Romany Reagan is an Arts Council England funded freelance research fellow and creative partner, working with museums and heritage sites. Her most recent exhibition 'Women's Weeds' was a study of the hidden histories of women in medicine—from mediaeval cunning women and herbal witchcraft to 19th-century feminist botany, at the Museum of the Home in London, which ran July-September 2023. Romany received her doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London in Performing Heritage in 2018. Her practice-based thesis explored the layers of heritage within Abney Park cemetery, which led to a study of the occult literary heritage of Stoke Newington, ‘earth mystery’ psychogeography, and folklore. Since completion of her PhD, Romany has documented her ongoing research into lost histories and place-based folklore and legends on her blog Blackthorn & Stone. 

BlueSky / Instagram / TikTok /: @msromany 

https://blackthornandstone.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@blackthornandstone

Tracks by Romany Reagan — Historian of Lost Stories