Every day they watched the little girl drag her burlap sack to the river bank, filling it with leaves, berries, and roots. “The woods gal,” they said.
Little did they know they were witnessing the beginnings of one of the best herbalists of all time.
All of her rompings by the riverbanks and woods meant that by the time she was a woman, Emma Dupree knew everything about North Carolina’s native plant life.
Working with local doctors, Dupree became an established herbalist. A title she didn’t take lightly.
With limited access to quality healthcare, Dupree’s community depended on her to heal their ailments and keep them healthy. Dupree’s abundant garden, her very own pharmacy, included plants like sassafras, white mint, and mullein.
Dupree used these to make tinctures, salves, and other medicinal remedies, that she distributed to her community, free of charge.
Dupree taught her community they were able to care for themselves, and that it was possible to create healing communities outside the gaze of anti-Blackness.
Communities like Soul Fire Farm continue Dupree’s legacy by developing strong relationships amongst each other and with the land.
We have access to numerous resources and ancestral wisdom. When we pour our resources into our communities, we build future relationships based on reciprocity, care, and trust. That’s the perfect prescription for abundance.