With the passing of the March 20 spring equinox last month, and now temperatures well into the 70s nearly every day, there is little doubt — spring is officially here!
For many people, that means getting back outdoors for early planting, exercise, yard work, and simply enjoying the great outdoors. The warmer weather also means that creatures and plants that have been lying dormant over the winter are reawakening. For early settlers in this area, it was a time for extra precaution. Without direct and easy access to doctors or medicine, settlers and their descendants relied on folk remedies to cure their ailments. These remedies took many forms, but for this article we’ll look at plant-based ones.
The origins of American folk remedies are a multicultural and shared history. Native Americans developed remedies from the resources around them. Often, the knowledge of beneficial or poisonous plants was passed from Native Americans to settlers via observation or direct teaching. Immigrants from Europe and enslaved Africans brought their traditional remedies with them and adapted them to the resources they found available here. The knowledge of these remedies was passed down from generation to generation and by word-of-mouth. They were often not written down, due to their nature as “secret recipes.”
In the spring, many early settlers sought to “clean” and “refresh” their system from the winter. Often plants were ingested as a tea, a syrup, and whole or ground into a poultice or salve to apply to the affected area. Common ailments of spring include poison ivy, cuts or scrapes, and bites. However, when it comes to folk remedies, they either work, don’t work, or could potentially cause ill effects. Mistake one plant for another or using it during the wrong time of the season could prove a sickly or even deathly mistake.
Poison ivy, and its relatives poison sumac and oak, cause its distinct rash and itchiness due to urushiol, an oil throughout the entire plant. One interesting remedy is to use the juice of a milkweed plant. Besides being a wonderful food source for pollinators, milkweed can also be used to alleviate a wide variety of ailments relating to the skin or muscles, such as rheumatism, ringworm, sores, ulcers, warts, and wounds. The plant itself can be eaten, but only when its young, as it’s slightly toxic. The flowers can be cooked down to make sugar and in turn into wine.
Cuts and scrapes are a common occurrence. Many cures were poultices or salves made from sarsaparilla, dandelion leaves, witch hazel, tobacco leaves, and peach tree leaves. However, one of the most interesting and non-plant-based cures was spider webs. Spider webs would be gathered and packed into the wound, which would stop the bleeding. Spider silk is flexible, tough, and for its weight extremely strong; plus, research suggests that it may have antimicrobial properties.
Insect bites or stings and snake bites proved worrisome if the culprit was identified as poisonous, otherwise it was more of a nuisance. The pain and swelling of insect bites and stings could be cured with tobacco leaves, crushed plantain, chrysanthemum, or ragweed leaves. For snake bites, a poultice of cockleburs or forget-me-not leaves, or the use of snake root was advised. In William Byrd’s The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines, he mentions coming across the plant on his travels and the effect it had.
“I found near our camp some plants of that kind of rattle-snake root, called star-grass. The leaves shoot out circularly, and grow horizontally and near the ground. The root is in shape not unlike the rattle of that serpent, and is a strong antidote against the bite of it. It is very bitter, and where it meets with any poison, works by violent sweats, but where it meets with none, has no sensible operation but that of putting the spirits into a great hurry, and so of promoting perspiration. The rattle-snake has an utter antipathy to this plant, insomuch that if you smear your hands with the juice of it, you may handle the viper safely.”
This article has only scratched the surface of folk remedies in our area. Keep your eye out for the plants mentioned, and your ears peeled for remedies folks may mention in passing.
Justyn Kissam is the director of programs and education at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Originally from Winston-Salem, she has moved around the state for her education and public history work until settling in Mount Airy. She can be reached at 336-786-4478 x 228 or jnkissam@northcarolinamuseum.org
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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