Do plants tell a hidden story about slavery?

Hi, my name is Cindy Sissokho — the curator of ‘Hard Graft’... an exhibition here at Wellcome Collection. The exhibition explores the impact of work on health. But today, we are focusing on one specific story. And it starts with plants. Let's go through it together.

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Plants and work

So this photograph was taken in Brazil by Marc Ferrez in 1882.

And it was used to advertise coffee in Europe.

It shows a coffee plantation.

One that, at first, seems calm... ordered and peaceful.

There's someone in charge.

And here there are people working.

But this photo is set up to obscure the inhuman treatment of enslaved people,

and its impact on their lives and health.

It's a trick... that is used in order to justify plantation work

and the financial profits.

We can find subtle clues of exploitation even here in the landscape and mountains.

Coffee is grown over a large area, destroying native plants

and the natural ecosystems over and over again.

However, hidden away from these crops, the natural environment was, and still is today, important for the survival of enslaved people.

Plants were another way to escape the harsh reality of the plantation system.

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Plants and escape

So this painting... is called ‘Daybreak – A Time to Rest’ by Jacob Lawrence.

His work tells the story of Harriet Tubman,

a woman who helped enslaved people escape from the South to the North of the United States via the ‘Underground Railroad’,

a network of safe houses.

Plants found in the landscapes were important for Tubman.

Her knowledge, taught by her father, made her a healer...

helping thousands of people escape enslavement.

For example, she often used chamomile flowers to help babies sleep,

to avoid them being heard by plantation owners during an escape.

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Plants and freedom

In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were laws preventing enslaved people from using plants as medicine.

I want to show you these pages from ‘The Book of Landscapes’ by Maria Floriza Veríssimo, made in 2020.

It shows pages of plants that are located in her communal garden in her home, in the Quilombo Ausente in Serro, in Minas Gerais, in Brazil.

‘Quilombo’ can be translated as ‘freed village’ or ‘community settlement’.

Quilombos were first established by people who escaped slavery, as far back as 400 years ago.

The plants used provided food and medicine.

And they are still used today.

Here, in the book by Maria, she archives and preserved that knowledge.

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Plants and resistance

Now, in this book... produced in 1705 by German naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, you'll find botanical drawings of plants from Suriname, a former Dutch colony in the northeast coast of Latin America.

Maria came here to document the wildlife... insects, animals... and plants.

During the trip, the owner of a sugar plantation introduced her to enslaved women.

Recently, historians have acknowledged that Maria's descriptions of each plant’s properties were heavily influenced by the knowledge of these women.

This book... indirectly leads us to understand the variety of herbal medicines used by enslaved people.

For example, this page shows the peacock flower... used by enslaved women to abort unwanted pregnancies and resist having a child born into enslavement.

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Plants and healing

In this artwork by Charmaine Watkiss... called ‘The Matriarch I’, it is devoted to plant knowledge — as well as her entire practice.

Charmaine [Watkiss] was taught ancestral herbal knowledge growing up in her family.

Each of her works spotlight medicinal and edible plants... fruits and seeds... all carrying powerful meanings and healing properties.

Here, for example, there is a woman with a sage plant around her neck.

Stage is full of antioxidants and is used to cure coughs and digestive problems.

And here is a branch of the manchineel apple tree.

This plant that Charmaine [Watkiss] shows locked in a bell jar was used to poison plantation owners.

Manchineel apples are a very toxic fruit, burning the skin when touched or eaten.

Although it was difficult to keep this plant knowledge alive, these histories are still preserved and used today.

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Plants and capitalism

The legacy of the plantation continues to touch the people close to it...

and also our natural environments.

As a final piece, I want to show you a video by the research agency, Forensic Architecture.

The title asks us... ‘if toxic air is a monument to slavery, how do we take it down?”

Across former plantation sites in Louisiana, the people who live there today are breathing some of the most toxic air in the country.

The continuous exploitation of this area by petrochemical industries dramatically affects the health and wellbeing of the people that live in the region today.

Industry activity also erases and threatens the burial grounds of the residents’ ancestors, many of whom were enslaved.

These investigations are so important in exposing how the historic violence of the plantation is still a part of today’s world.

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So... the plantation system is still with us today, and it continues to impact the people closest to it.

From herbal medicine that's hundreds of years old, to providing community and sanctuary, the plant world is full of stories.

Even secrets.

Secrets that help us understand the lives and health of those most affected by plantation work.

And those still marginalised in our society today.

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