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My Alabama Shaw Family on My Father’s Side From 1861-2014

Mama and I were required to stay in our dark birthing room a month to fulfill a Negro custom
in the early part of the twentieth century

Posted Dec 2, 2016

Annie Shaw-Barnes, Ph.D.
Author and Speaker
Cultural Anthropologist
Family Specialist
Family Education Specialist
Spousal Abuse Specialist
Christian Church Specialist
Racism Specialist

Hi everyone,

Negro culture about birthing children in the first part of the twentieth century  shows this picture.

Back in 1932, it took a goodly amount of time for Mama and me to leave the birthing room. The Negro belief was their children would go blind, if direct light struck their eyes, before they were a month old. For certain, I was told, Mama and I stayed in the darkened room, with bedsheets (our curtains) covering our window, thirty days.

Many years later, Mama required me to follow an abbreviated birthing room Negro custom that required me to stay in the house two weeks after giving birth to our daughter.

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