Throughout history as an ornamental shrub, very little has been mentioned in the botanical literature about the role it played in the lives of desperate slave women struggling against the terrible situation they found themselves in. This beautiful tropical shrub, with its fine, lacy leaves and brilliant orange flowers that are irresistible to hummingbirds, produces a seed pod who’s poison was well known to women of the West Indies. Medical literature of the eighteenth century describes the attempts of slave women to end their pregnancies so that their children would not contribute to the wealth of a slave owner. Some women sought medicine from plantation doctors in the hopes it would cause a miscarriage while others relied on plants like the peacock flower. Slaves used the seeds of this plant to abort their children, so that they would not be born into slavery. ・・・ #growninhaiti #peacockflower #caesalpiniapulcherrima #poicianapulcherrima #slavery #abortion #tropical #flower #revolt #haiti #ayiti #agroforestry #history #didyouknow #notsoFunFacts https://www.instagram.com/p/BuzzTxjjpJK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=d7ik8h273vuk
