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Jane Minor (abt 1792–1858), also known as Gensey (or Jensey) Snow, was an African-American
The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America
p. 578, SAGE Publications, Feb 15, 2015
Inspiring African-American Women of Virginia
IUniverse, 2015 *Darlene Clark Hine, Kathleen Thompson
A Shining Thread of Hope
Crown/Archetype, 2009 *S Mitchell
Bodies of Knowledge: The Influence of Slaves on the Antebellum Medical Community
,1997, Virginia Tech Digital Archives * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Minor, Jane Folk healers People from Petersburg, Virginia African-American businesspeople 19th-century American businesspeople African-American nurses History of slavery in Virginia African-American history of Virginia Year of birth uncertain 1858 deaths American nurses American women nurses Free Negroes 19th-century American slaves People from Dinwiddie County, Virginia 19th-century African-American women 19th-century American businesswomen
Jane Minor (abt 1792–1858), also known as Gensey (or Jensey) Snow, was an African-American healer
Healer may refer to:
Conventional medicine
*Doctor of Medicine
*Health professional
Alternative medicine
* Faith healer
* Folk healer
* Healer (alternative medicine), someone who purports to aid recovery from ill health
* Spiritual healer
F ...
and slave emancipator
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchise ...
, one of the few documented enslaved healing practitioners in United States history.
Early life
Minor was born intoslavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
as Gensey Snow in Dinwiddie County
Dinwiddie County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,947. Its county seat is Dinwiddie.
Dinwiddie County is part of the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The f ...
, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. She worked on the estate of Benjamin Harris May.
Healer and emancipator
Minor "was apparently skilled medically and a very gifted, nurturing healer, someone patients really responded to," according to historian Susan Lebsock. In 1825, a feverepidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
struck Petersburg
Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to:
Places Australia
*Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia
Canada
* Petersburg, Ontario
Russia
*Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg
United States
*Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...
, Virginia, and many families, black and white, were affected. As a result of her healing work, Benjamin May gave Minor her freedom. In the manumission
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
deed, he notes that he freed Minor "for several acts of extraordinary merit in nursing at the imminent risk of her own health and safety, exercising the most unexampled patience and attention in watching over the sick beds of several individuals of this town, as well as on account of my belief that she will in the future continue ... to perform similar acts ... "
In 1826, she met and married Lewis Minor, a free laborer. After her emancipation, she took the name Jane Minor. The money Jane Minor earned as a medical practitioner, usually from $2-$5 per visit, allowed her to purchase and free at least sixteen slaves, some of whom cost over $2,000. In one case, in July, 1840, she bought and freed a mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
woman named Emily Smith and her five children. In another, the same month and year, she emancipated a fellow healing practitioner named Phoebe Jackson. Lebsock says Minor was the most active free black emancipator in Petersburg, male or female.
More than 30 years after her manumission, Petersburg newspapers printed reports of operations performed by physicians in "the Hospital of the well-known nurse Jinsey Snow." Cupping and leeching were standard medical practices of that time. Researchers have observed that enslaved medical practitioners like Jane Minor often brought herbal and other medical knowledge from Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
that was at that time unknown in early colonial America.Mwalimu J. Shujaa, Kenya J. Shujaa,The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America
p. 578, SAGE Publications, Feb 15, 2015
References
Further reading
*Veronica A.DavisInspiring African-American Women of Virginia
IUniverse, 2015 *Darlene Clark Hine, Kathleen Thompson
A Shining Thread of Hope
Crown/Archetype, 2009 *S Mitchell
Bodies of Knowledge: The Influence of Slaves on the Antebellum Medical Community
,1997, Virginia Tech Digital Archives * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Minor, Jane Folk healers People from Petersburg, Virginia African-American businesspeople 19th-century American businesspeople African-American nurses History of slavery in Virginia African-American history of Virginia Year of birth uncertain 1858 deaths American nurses American women nurses Free Negroes 19th-century American slaves People from Dinwiddie County, Virginia 19th-century African-American women 19th-century American businesswomen