Gilbert Falconer, a settler from Kent County, Maryland, declares that: ‘‘The Indians have many valuable Secrets among them, that are not yet communicated to the English, and perform several notable cures.’’ This is one example of the tension that exists throughout the colonial period, as settler-colonists recognize the medicinal knowledge of Indigenous people while, at the same time, minimize and dismiss Indigenous people in order to justify their land seizure.

Similar tensions exist in relationship to Black healers, as many enslaved Africans carry with them both knowledge and seeds for medicines that the white settler-colonists and slaveholders lack, desire, and, sometimes, fear.