Grand Midwives of the South

While researching the Grand Midwives of the South, I saw a striking image of Aunt Sally, “Aunt Sally, old midwife, the only doctor or nurse ever heard of in Gee’s Bend before project was started. Gee’s Bend, Alabama”,  Understanding the significance of being the only medical professional in Gee's Bend, I knew there had to be more to Aunt Sally's story than just being an old midwife.

Sally Miller was believed to have been born in 1859 to Dinah Miller, who was known for her oral history. Dinah would gather her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the evenings to share stories of her youth in Africa, recounting tales of African resistance to capture. Dinah, along with her mother, father, and brother, was abducted from Africa and survived the Middle Passage journey to slavery. She was separated from her family and never saw them again, being sold for a mere dime.

Dinah recounted being sold and taken to Snow Hill, where she described how "four big healthy men, two Indians and two whites," were sent to impregnate the enslaved African women because”They wanted strong babies.”  According to Dinah's great-granddaughter Arlonzia Pettway, “She had to live with those four mens, and once the woman got pregnant, they moved them out and brought more womens in.” This account aligns with practices in slave-breeding houses.  This is where and how Dianah conceived Sally.

Sally's debute into motherhood was the result of a rape by a white slave owner when she was 17. Despite this traumatic beginning, Sally loved her son and named him Tank. However, Tank's grandmother, the mother of Sally's rapist, took him away to raise as her own.  Sally cried for six months.

At 36 years old, Sally Miller became a midwife and was highly respected as the only practitioner in Gee's Bend, Alabama at that time. After marrying her husband Esau and being moved to the Pettway Plantation, Sally and Esau had twelve children and several grandchildren.

More than just an "old midwife," Grand Midwife Sally Miller was a crucial lifeline for the residents of the county, providing care not only during pregnancy and childbirth but also during life-threatening medical emergencies.

Mary Green Scott's story is exemplary of the resilience and rich heritage of African Americans in America. Mary Scott was a formerly enslaved African who moved to the capital city of Mississippi after the abolition of slavery where she worked as a maid. Scott learned about investing in property and land ownership opportunities for Black people.  She saved enough money to purchase land on which two houses were constructed in 1891. Scott and her family were among the first African Americans to build homes on Cohea Street after the Civil War marking the beginning of a legacy that would be passed down through generations.

Scott lived in one of the homes while her daughter Virginia Ford, a practicing midwife lived in the other with her husband John Ford, who ran a car service, and often drove Virginia to her clients’ homes. Ford practiced midwifery during the Jim Crow era in the United States when racial segregation and discrimination were rampant, particularly in the healthcare system.  Virginia Ford's role as a midwife was especially significant given the barriers faced by African Americans seeking proper medical care during this time. Many Black individuals were denied admission to hospitals or were forced to endure segregated and inferior facilities.  

Ford's work as a midwife was not only important for the physical well-being of her patients but also for their emotional and mental health. In a time when healthcare providers often disregarded the humanity of African Americans, Ford's compassionate and attentive care provided a sense of dignity and respect to her clients. She cultivated a sense of trust and safety within her community, allowing women and families to feel supported and empowered during the childbirth experience.

Mary Scott and Virginia Ford opened their homes on Cohea Street to provide care for expectant mothers and individuals and to train women in the art of midwifery. This was a radical act of community-building and empowerment, as it allowed Black women to have greater control over their reproductive health and provided much-needed support to pregnant women in the area.

The Scott Ford Houses were listed as one of Mississippi Heritage Trust’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2017.  In the fall of 2022, the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in downtown Jackson, Mississippi opened the Scott Ford House Permanent Exhibit to tell the story of granny midwives.  The goal of the exhibit is to illuminate the history of midwifery in the South and showcase a wide range of topics, from historical events surrounding the kidnapping and enslavement of women from West Africa to America to influential figures like the Scott-Ford family.  Click the link below to learn more about exhibits at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center.

The Sheppard-Towner Act provided federal funding for maternal-child care. It grew out of the efforts of the US Children’s Bureau in Washington, D.C. during the early part of the twentieth century. The US Children’s Bureau was established in 1912 as a federal department that dealt with issues concerning the welfare of infants and children. Between 1913 and 1915, the Bureau conducted several studies that indicated infants had a higher mortality rate in areas affected by poverty and a lack of accurate information on health and hygiene. The Bureau found that pregnant women and infants in rural areas were at higher than normal risk of death due to a lack of access to nurses and hospitals.

A pamphlet entitled “The Sheppard-Towner Bill: For the Protection of Maternity and Infancy (S. 1039, H.R. 2366)” was published. The pamphlet warned of 20,000 mothers dying during childbirth and 200,000 babies dying before their first birthday. 

A deep analysis of the birth outcomes data reveals that as births shifted to hospitals, maternal mortality rates - the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births - did not decline between 1900 and 1940. Furthermore, infant mortality rates due to birth injuries increased forty to fifty percent between 1915 and 1929 as hospital birth rates increased.

The Sheppard Towner bill was sponsored by Democratic Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas and Republican Representative Horace Mann Towner of Iowa, who introduced it in 1920. States reserved the right to adopt the Sheppard-Towner Act while requiring participating states to comply with certain regulations to receive federal funding. Instruction on hygiene for maternal-child health provided by public health nurses, visiting nurses, consultation centers, and childcare conferences was one provision. Receiving a distribution of educational materials on prenatal care from the government was another. Probably the most detrimental was the regulation and licensure of midwives. After the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act, many states passed laws to receive Sheppard-Towner funds. By 1922, forty-one states had passed legislation enabling them to access Sheppard-Towner funds.

At the time of the passage of the Sheppard–Towner Act, nearly half of all births in the United States were attended by midwives. The percentage was higher in the South, especially among African Americans. The Sheppard–Towner Act required training and licensure of midwives after centuries of enslaved Africans being terrorized and even brutally murdered for attempting to learn how to read. During the Jim Crow era, schools for African Americans were poorly resourced and substandard, further decreasing learning prospects for Black people.

Midwife licensure and Sheppard-Towner programs that encouraged reliance on medical professionals contributed to the decimation of Black midwifery practice in the United States and the medicalization of pregnancy, labor, and birth.

To view the Sheppard Towner bill pamphlet, click the link below.

Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900-1966) is renowned for attending the birth of more than 3,000 women during her 30-year midwifery career, including her grandson William Ralph Coley, Jr. She was born in Baker County, Georgia, and was the youngest of her siblings. She was also the surviving daughter of a twin pregnancy, as her twin sister Martha died at birth. Mary Hill was raised by her aunt and uncle after her parents passed away in her early childhood.

In 1930, Mary Hill married her husband Ashley Coley and moved to Albany where her interest in midwifery peaked. She received her training through an apprenticeship model under the tutelage of Grand Midwife Onnie Lee Logan. Mary Hill Coley attended births in Albany's Dougherty, Lee, Mitchel, and Worth counties.

Ms. Coley, as she was affectionately known by her clients, not only attended births in her community, but also visited her clients for days postpartum to help with cooking, cleaning, and newborn care. She believed her work was a "Spiritual Calling" and was recognized for providing equitable care to both Black and White clients, despite the terror and discrimination faced by the Black community.

In 1952 Ms. Coley agreed to be followed for four months by documentarian George Stoney who cataloged Ms. Coley’s meticulous care of women and training of apprentis midwives.  The resulting film, “All My Babies” was produced and used by the Georgia Health Department as an instructional training film.  The film's intended message revolves around hygiene and was used to educate Black "granny" midwives on medicalized birthing practices, with a focus on sanitation. In the American South, where a majority of midwives were African American,

the film was a key component of early- to mid-twentieth-century efforts to monitor and control them.

In 2002, "All My Babies" was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as a culturally and historically significant work. You can view "All My Babies"  on the Library of Congress website by clicking the link below.

The fourteenth child out of sixteen, Onnie Lee was born May 3, 1910, to Len Rodgers and Martha Curtis near Sweet Water, Marengo County, Alabama.  Onnie Lee’s mother Martha was a midwife and a farmer.  Several members of Martha’s family, including her mother-in-law, both grandmothers and a brother-in-law, which was uncommon. 

Continuing a family tradition of midwifery, Onnie Lee learned midwifery primarily from her mother, attending numerous births and supplementing that knowledge with classroom learning.  Onnie Lee started taking midwifery classes at the Mobile County Board of Health a few years before marrying her husband Roosevelt Logan. She quickly earned her license and permit in 1949 and began her midwifery career at the age of 21 while working as a domestic servant in a wealthy white household. During that time, midwifery wasn't a financially sustainable career on its own, so Logan had to work another job as a maid. Upon entering her career as a midwife, the number of midwives in Alabama reached its peak at 2,600. Most of these midwives were African-American women who conducted home births in small communities.  Onnie Lee Logan practiced midwifery between 1947 and 1984. 

Onnie Lee Logan attended the births of both black and white women against the backdrop of Klan terror, including the castration of black males and infanticide of mixed-race babies.

During her 40 year midwifery career, Onnie Lee Logan only lost one baby. Logan adopted a family-centered approach, encouraging fathers' participation and viewing the birth process as normal, not a sickness. She relied on relaxation and gravity to facilitate birthing and minimized perineal lacerations through breathing, hot compresses, oil, positioning, and encouragement. 

Onnie Lee Logans’, "motherwit," a spiritual calling from God, intertwined the practical knowledge from her American Indian and African American heritage.  Her traditions also included the use of magical aids, such as placing a knife under the mother's bed to help alleviate the pain. 

Alabama banned “granny midwifery” in 1976 but allowed Logan to practice until 1984 when they informed her that her permit would not be renewed. Onnie Lee Logan attended the birth of almost every child born between 1931 and 1984 in Prichard and Crighton, predominantly black areas of Mobile, Alabama, and trained other midwives, like Mary Francis Hill Coley.

 Learn more about the life and legacy of Grand Midwife Onnie Lee Logan by making "Motherwit" your next read.  Click the link below for more details.