Enslaved Africans carried healing-root traditions across the Middle Passage

Evidence

One night I decided to look up John the Conqueror root on the internet and was amazed to learn that the plant was named after an enslaved African prince from the Congo whose spirit was never broken. According to the folk law, the root had mystical and healing powers and many, including the great African American abolitionist and activist Frederick Douglass, carried it with them to ward off evil or other misfortune. It made sense that Congo Renty would practice traditions from his homeland—and pass them along to his children and grandchildren. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 201