Date of Award

12-1-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Liberal Studies

College

College of Humanities and Fine Arts

First Advisor

Ina Seethaler

Second Advisor

Emily Humbert

Third Advisor

Gillian Richards-Greaves

Abstract

In today’s sociopolitical climate, restrictive reproductive laws continue to disproportionately target Black women, reinforcing historic patterns of racialized and gendered oppression. This thesis argues that Black women will recommence their usage of traditional herbal healing as both a survival strategy and an act of reclaiming bodily autonomy in defiance of hostile legal, financial, and medical systems. The Gullah Geechee community serves as a blueprint for this transition, offering cultural continuity, intergenerational knowledge, and a model for community-based healthcare and resistance. By tracing the historical necessity of herbal medicine among Gullah Geechee women, this study situates ancestral natural healing within contemporary struggles for reproductive justice. Cases such as Blackmon v. Tennessee (2023) highlight how abortion bans and vague medical exceptions undermine Black women’s reproductive freedoms and endanger their lives. Economic inequities exacerbated by policies such as the Hyde Amendment and the “One Big Beautiful Bill” highlight how Black women remain uniquely vulnerable to reproductive injustice and present-day implicit bias. Through an interdisciplinary framework that combines historical analysis, legal research, Black feminist theory, and reproductive justice scholarship, this project illustrates how systemic barriers have consistently undermined Black women’s health and autonomy. In response, the reclamation of natural healing practices amongst Black women is not a regression, but a reclamation of their autonomy and resilience. However, while natural healing offers financial, cultural, and spiritual pathways of survival for Black women, true reproductive justice requires sociopolitical reform that values Black women’s voices in the fight for equitable healthcare and legal protections.

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