The Great Migration, sometimes called the Black Migration, was the movement of six million African Americans from the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1910 and 1970.
The Great Migration was due to Jim Crow laws that perpetuated and enforced racial harassment, segregation, and discrimination. Black farmers were forced to give up their land, property, and homes and move North.
Amanda David’s maternal grandparents were driven from their South Carolina farm and forced to move to Elmira, New York, where she grew up. However, David’s grandparents never lost their connection to the Earth and passed this along to David, who was born with an affinity for nature.
“As a kid, I was always outside, mixing potions, listening to the birds, and watching the deer. We lived near a river, where I always hung out. From a very young age, something in me always felt very connected to being outside. It felt comfortable.”
Both sets of David’s grandparents fostered her respect and love for nature; her maternal grandfather hunted and fished, while her paternal grandfather maintained a garden where David and her father assisted on their land in New York.
Creating a Safe Space on Land in New York
David’s journey toward understanding and appreciating nature began with a deepening interest in agriculture, farming, and herbalism. Driven to reconnect Black and Brown people with ancestral land-based knowledge, she immersed herself in formal education and hands-on experience.
“Right after high school, I dove into farming, starting with migrant work across the country,” David explains. “These experiences, coupled with apprenticeships on organic farms and herbalist studies, formed the backbone of my knowledge. But it’s not just about book learning. Spending time with plants and observing their behavior has been invaluable. It’s like they have stories to tell. However, I’m cautious about making definitive claims based solely on observation. Research is crucial to ensure the information I share is accurate and safe.”
In 2020, David and her three children moved into their current residence in Brooktondale, New York, just 45 minutes from where she grew up. Once there, she expanded her herbal medicine business, Rootwork Herbals, by establishing a community garden on her property and land in New York.
Spanning an acre and a half, it features community beds for medicinal herbs and food, individual beds for community members, a teaching pavilion, a cabin for making and distributing free medicine, and livestock such as Nigerian dwarf goats and hens.
The community garden is open to Black, Indigenous, and people of color members, and David creates specific events open to the wider community. “It’s a powerful way to unite people and build community,” David says.
“The community we’ve been blessed to build around the gardens feels like the solution to many problems we face within colonial structures. Structures designed to separate us from each other, the land, and our power. But I believe that being on the land, in community with others, is how we’ll figure it out.”
Remembering and Connecting With Our Roots
Rootwork, also known as hoodoo or conjure, is a traditional African American folk magic practice that originated in the antebellum South. It was brought to the American Colonies during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and blended African, Native American and European concepts.
Rootwork centers on ancestor veneration, justice, and botanical healing, a practice David has utilized for most of her life. “My ancestral connection to the earth and growing food and medicine drives my commitment to helping Black and Brown people reclaim this knowledge, which was intentionally taken from us. When I first got into agriculture and herbalism, I often found myself in predominantly white spaces where I didn’t feel comfortable or connected. Since then, I have focused on creating pathways to help us remember and reconnect with our roots.”
When purchasing the house, David said the previous owners warned her about one of the neighbors, a retired white man. According to David, the issues with the neighbor started immediately, with him wandering onto her property and interrogating her with microaggressions and racist harassment.
“He constantly came onto our land, making inappropriate and racially insensitive remarks. The previous owner was Chinese, and he would make offensive comments about them. As a single mother, he’d make assumptions, questioning how I could afford to live there, implying I must have had a wealthy husband or received a lot of child support.”
By Stephanie Teasley
