The underground railroad will sprout above ground this year, with the planting of a new underground railroad healing garden today. The healing garden is meant to complement the monument outside Talcott Hall and commemorate the folk medicine used by African-Americans while on the underground railroad.
The medicinal garden project is part of a series of student-planted gardens called "Dig In At Oberlin." It is the brainchild of Manager of the Grounds Department Dennis Greive. Greive was asked by the architectural review committee to examine the current garden in front of Talcott, and said he recognized that "rather than complementing the monument, the garden obscured it."
Greive had been working on an Underground Railroad Healing Garden at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington and decided to continue the project at Oberlin by "thematizing the landscaping."
Greive wanted to involve students in landscaping though the "Dig In At Oberlin Project," especially those students living in residence halls. He intended to show students how gardens are set up and to teach students how plants are grown and used. Students also would have the opportunity to learn about soil, mulch and water in gardening.
"Students will like landscaping more if they have help with it," Greive said.
This particular garden that students had the chance to help landscape is rich with tradition and will serve along with the underground railroad monument as a marker of an unforgettable historical period.
One of Greive's goals is to "make the plants tell a story," and the story they have to tell is a fascinating one.
African Americans on the underground railroad were unable to seek medical treatment from professional establishments because they risked getting caught and being sent back to plantations as slaves. Most slaves, however, were able to develop herbal medicines utilizing the same herbs for healing that were used in Africa, due to similarities between the vegetation of the lowlands of the Carolinas and Georgia with Africa. In fact, many of the European colonizers depended on African Americans' knowledge of indigenous herbs and crops.
A plantation doctor would only be called upon as a last resort. Most slaves were adverse to the bleeding and blistering techniques used in Western medical practice because they neglected the many psychological aspects of illness. The slaves first depended on their families for treatment and then called in an herbalist. If the herbalist was ineffective, a Conjurer would be summoned. Only after the failure of the Conjurer would a Plantation Physician be asked to treat the patient, according to Greive.Since African tradition attributes the cause of illness to a disharmonious relationship between an individual and his or her environment, healers believed it was essential to heal the spirit as well as the body.
Today 60 percent of African-Americans living in remote regions of the South still use herbal healing, Greive said.
The herbs planted around the underground railroad monument are for aesthetic purposes only. They are not intended to be harvested by students and used as medicine. Greive said none of the herbs will be grown using pesticides.
Future theme gardens to be installed include a butterfly garden, a Native plant garden, and an herb garden. The underground railroad monument was designed and installed by Cameron Armstrong, OC '77. It was funded by his graduating class and given to the College as a gift.