User:Biancaserafano/sandbox

Overview
Liza “Ma” Williams was an African American resident of Savannah, Georgia who, in the Federal Writers Project, claimed to be born in 1836, making her 103 years old at the time. In her early life, Williams was a laundress until her health no longer allowed it. She had a husband and two children, all of whom died within a few years of each other. After her death, Williams had no family members left. Williams' date of death is unknown.

Early Life
Williams claims that she was born with the ability to heal, saying that it seemed like these abilities are present at birth. She went on to say she just seemed to know how to make medicine and work cures .When Williams was younger, she worked as a laundress across a variety of hotels. After no longer being able to work as a laundress, she depended on her children for financial support.

Adult Life
Williams had a husband and two children. Her husband died of old age, and her daughter and son died from sudden illnesses. Williams was religious, claiming that witchcraft was created because of an interaction between God and Lucifer. Williams was well known in her town for being a “root doctor,” or a traditional healer who uses spells, roots, and other ingredients. When neighbors were asked about Williams, many individuals of the town believed she had special abilities in healing and harming. Those who claimed that they didn’t believe in Williams’ abilities still hesitated to say anything too severe against her. In her old age she no longer healed people as she was previously brought to court for practicing witchcraft. However, Williams still possessed many recipes for certain concoctions and conjures. In practicing witchcraft, Williams anoints the head of the individual with oil, wraps their head, and says the words that are required for the healing. At the height of Williams’ healing career, people were visiting her house at all hours of the night in need of healing. This shows the popularity and beliefs in this sort of work. After being brought to court for practicing witchcraft, William stopped healing for the most part, but stayed true to her religious and spiritual beliefs until her death.

Unequal Access to Health Care for African Americans
Root doctors came about during times of slavery and continued to be popular for African Americans even after slavery was abolished. Being a root doctor was popular in African American culture at the time because they lacked the opportunity that it took to seek professional medical care. This issue with African Americans having a difficult time seeing a medical doctor was because of segregation and racism that was instilled in American society even after slavery was technically outlawed. African Americans had a difficult time seeking professional medical care, so their next best option was to seek help from a root doctor.


 * “Slaves also took an active role in their own physical well-being. Doing so not only helped them stay healthy, it also gave them a measure of control over their lives.
 * “After emancipation, African Americans continued to utilize the services of root doctors and conjurers. Many lacked access to formally trained medical practitioners or could not afford the expensive costs of their services. Moreover, widespread racial hostility ensured that white doctors often provided inferior treatment to African American patients. Terrifying stories of physical abuse, experimentation, and mutilation circulated widely among African Americans, leading to a general mistrust of the white medical profession. In contrast, the services of root doctors and conjurers were relatively low cost, accessible, and trustworthy.”

Disenfranchisement of African Americans
Segregation and racial oppression were still common in America after slavery was abolished. There was segregation in public buildings and schools which didn’t get much better until roughly the 1930’s when Roosevelt’s New Deal attempted to give more support to African Americans. Inequality existed during and after the reconstruction era by disenfranchising African Americans votes. White individuals in power tried placing African Americans in jail for reasons such as lacking a medical license to practice medicine or practicing witchcraft. The African American vote was suppressed by making it difficult for them to vote, even after the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendment. These methods were used in order to dismantle the Civil Rights movement while also keep African Americans from having as much power as white individuals.


 * "The death of Reconstruction fueled resurgence of white nationalist violence, occupational segregation, and racial discrimination designed to trap Black Americans in a semipermanent status of second-class citizenship. The cornerstone of these efforts was the systematic disenfranchisement and suppression of Black voters.

Misconceptions Surrounding Witchcraft
Certain popular TV shows, such as American Horror Story, depict witchcraft in various ways. Tituba, the first to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, was depicted as an African American in the media, when it’s possible that she was actually Native American. There are many confusions when it comes to Tituba, many of which lead people to assume that witchcraft originated in Africa and African American culture. Williams was considered a root doctor in her time but not all people completely understood what being a root doctor was. White people in specific used these misconceptions of being a root doctor as an excuse to take African Americans to court for witchcraft and kill other minorities for “participating” in such an activity.


 * “It allows the intimations of devil worship and dark magic that remain inextricable from many depictions of witchcraft to be linked only to African Americans, often associated with abjectified religious beliefs and practices…”
 * “Tituba’s difference from the other women and men hanged at Salem, and her status as scapegoat for and catalyst to the 1692 trials, becomes a covert means of suggesting that witchcraft is never Anglo-European in origin, but can always be traced back to Africa and/or the New World”