Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section059/Eliza Grant

Overview

Eliza Grant was an African American woman who lived in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her interview was conducted in December of 1938, and highlighted her experiences as a midwife and a mother throughout her life.

Biography

Eliza was constantly working, caring for white womens’ babies, as she says. Even when she was heavily pregnant, she kept working- ironing, washing, cooking. This reflects the time period because African Americans were usually subject to labor or “odd-jobs” with no steady income. When giving birth to her first baby, she did so on the floor, with no doctor, because they did not have the money. A midwife and some neighborhood women were there to help with the birth. Despite this, Eliza maintained a matter-of-fact attitude about her life, because that was simply how things were. After her child was born, Eliza went back to work, and helped a young girl named Clarice give birth. She used hot water to clean the baby after it was born and a borax powder solution to wash out its eyes and mouth, then wrapped it up before helping Clarice deliver the afterbirth as well. As a midwife, you could get up to thirty dollars a month and a room, but this was not always the case. How much the woman made depended on how long she stayed with the woman and if the family even decided or was able to pay. Even through all the uncertainty of payment and the need to pick up any odd job she could to make ends meet, Eliza cared for everyone and tried her best to lead a good and honest life.

Midwifery in the Early 1900s

Midwifery as a practice has greatly changed over time. In the very beginning of the 20th century, midwifery and childbirth served to create a female-dominated social network, which was never really seen before. Hospitals were not seen as somewhere one could go for needs such as childbirth because they were generally noisy and dirty, so most births were done at home. It was considered more respectable to give birth at home with family than at a hospital. At the end of the 19th century, almost half of all births were attended by physicians rather than midwives, the majority of which were done in homes. “Most middle-and-upper class white women were attended by physicians in their homes during childbirth, while Southern black families and immigrants relied heavily on midwives”[1]. Over time, as medical knowledge grew, people began to become trained as nurses or doctors specially for childbirth. Hospitals increased in size and better medical technology became available, such as pain medication to help with the birthing process. As this occurred, there came more of a shift from home to hospital. Upper class families would give birth in a hospital, middle class families would give birth at home with a physician present, and lower-income families would usually use midwives. The percentage of births attended by midwives in 1900 was 50%, but by 1925, it was a mere 12.5%.

Social Issues

African American Treatment

The treatment of minorities in the South in Eliza’s lifetime can be shown through her life experiences as well as her husband’s. Both of them were forced to work odd jobs that were often low paying in order to keep their family afloat. Even when heavily pregnant, Eliza kept working because she could not afford to stop. This type of work was not new to Eliza, however because her family did the same before her. She says her parents “’Went to cooking and washing for the white folks’”[2] and made around $1.50 a week. Most of the jobs that Eliza refers to as either her or her parents picking up throughout their lives involved them doing some sort of labor for white families for very little pay. African American and immigrant families stayed pretty much restricted to at-home, midwife-attended births as the upper class began to move towards hospital births with trained physicians. As a result of this, births were often dirtier, more painful, and more risky.

Birth Control Options and Availability

In the 1910s, it was an arrestable offense to spread information about contraception. It was only after the threat of STDs greatly increased that common places were allowed to sell condoms, but even then it was only “as long as they were marketed as tools ‘for prevention of disease only’”[3]. Following this, contraceptive methods were still very unpredictive and often times painful. Birth control was frowned upon by many religious groups and, throughout the 1920s, purchasing condoms was illegal in many states. In the 1930s, courts ruled that condoms and birth control would be allowed to be sold legally in all states. The first oral birth control pill was not FDA approved until 1960 but it was very flawed. In Eliza’s interview, she laughs at how she thought that a contraceptive would prevent her from becoming pregnant, but it failed.

Citations

“History Of Raleigh.” Raleighnc.gov. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://raleighnc.gov/history-raleigh.

Bentley, Margaret E., Deborah L. Dee, and Joan L. Jensen. “Breastfeeding among Low Income, African-American Women: Power, Beliefs and Decision Making.” The Journal of Nutrition 133, no. 1 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/133.1.305s.

Fain, Harry. “Folder 373: Fain, Harry (interviewer): Eliza Grant, Midwife.” Federal Writers Project Papers. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/03709/id/499/rec/1

Fogarty, Lisa. “What Birth Control Was Like In Every Decade.” Redbook. Redbook, October 13, 2017. https://www.redbookmag.com/body/pregnancy-fertility/g4283/what-birth-control-was-like-in-every-decade/.

Thomasson, Melissa A., and Jaret Treber. “From Home to Hospital: The Evolution of Childbirth in the United States, 1928–1940.” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 1 (2008): 76–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2007.07.001.

Tom, S. “The Evolution of Nurse-Midwifery: 1900–1960.” Journal of Nurse-Midwifery 27, no. 4 (1982): 4–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-2182(82)90164-1.