Filmmaker Nazenet Habtezghi brings to light the mission of enslaved woman Mary Gaffeny to disrupt the practice of 'slave breeding' in her short film Birthing a Nation: The Resisitance of Mary Gaffney
Gaffney born in 1846, was interviewed in 1930 by the Works Progress Administration, a federal work relief program that collected more than 2,300 first-person accounts of formerly enslaved people.
In her own words: "When I married it was just home wedding, factn is I just hated the man I married but it was what Maser say do ... I would not let that negro touch me and he told Maser and Maser gave me a real good whipping, so that night Inlet that negro nave his way. Maser was going to raise him a lot more slaves, but still I cheated Maser. I never did have any slaves to grow and Maser he wondered what was the matter ... I kept cotton roots and chewed them all the time but I was careful not to let Maser know or catch me, son I never did have any children while zi was a slave."
Cotton Root was part of the landscape along the coast of Africa, and using it the way Mary did was knowledge handed down through generations of women.
"Then when slavery was over I justnkept living with that negro ... Yes, after freedom we had 5 children ... My grandchildren I don't think I can count them but I thinks they are 20. I'se had one great grandchild."
The short film can be streamed on Paramount Plus
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