The history of the African American midwife (granny midwife) is a largely forgotten and untold story. The information available about them and their practices is sketchy and biased. However, the African American midwife played a very important role as a birth attendant as well as a community healer. These women were valued for their traditions and healing arts that they brought from Central and West Afrika (via the middle passage). Their earliest roles were to make sure that a healthy labor force was maintained on the plantation. They took care of the sick as well as the dead. Their primary function was to make sure that the breeding mothers had healthy babies and that woman were kept healthy so that they could continue to have healthy babies. In this way, the enslaver was able to economically profit,

In her community the midwife was a revered figure and was known as the GRANNY due to her age, her life experiences and an interdependent relationship to the community that lasted from birth to adulthood. On the plantation, she belonged to a group of females called "partial hands" (she was not a part of the full time work force) she was also known as a "middy". Just about every plantation had its midwife and in fact midwifery was seen as a craft reserved for Black women. The granny was a master in the use of herbs and she was able to pass down medicinal healing from one generation to another. This and other skills increased the reverence the community held for her. It was said that some of the midwives' healings were secretive and their knowledge served as a form of "resistance." They learned from indigenous sisters, new remedies that they incorporated into their practices.

Midwives became "granny" midwives through apprenticeship and "spiritual call to serve." They were called "grannies" because most of the midwives began their apprenticeship in their 40's or 50's and worked well into their 70's and 80's. Because of her involvement with the intimacies of birth and healing, the midwife extended family. The Granny Midwives delivered millions of babies freely without government  interference. This freedom to practice would be lost because the medical profession, the medical industry and the government itself decided to launched a sustained, systematic and coordinated campaign to eliminate this healer once and for all. The American Medical Association targeted midwifery for extermination spreading misinformation about the supposed inabilities and malpractices of traditional midwives. The Black midwife became a scapegoat and made responsible for the rising infant and maternal mortality rates that were occurring in the SouThe large number of Black maternal deaths were attributed not to economic conditions (like it was attributed in the North); but that Black women were attended to by Black midwives. Suddenly, she became "ignorant", "dirty", "a meddlesome old biddy" practicing her craft in an unsafe and superstitious way. The grannies had always prided themselves on the ability of their hand meddlesome old biddy" practicing her craft in an unsafe and superstitious way.  The Black midwife became a scapegoat and made responsible for the rising infant and maternal mortality rates that were occurring in the South. The large number of Black maternal deaths were attributed not to economic conditions (like it was attributed in the North); but that Black women were attended to by Black midwives.  

By the 1920's most midwives had to be licensed by the state in which they practiced and the new standards were strictly controlled. The push was to have women give birth in hospitals and to take away the power and trust in midwives. Many midwives retired in disgust, and the apprenticeship system, which had perpetuated the training of midwives since enslavement disappeared. Midwives became afraid to talk about traditional practices so as to protect their licenses. In fact, the campaign to discredit midwives was so successful, that even today the lack of midwives and birth workers in communities of color reflects itself in negative disparity of birthing outcomes for people of color. 

Harlem Birth Action is collecting signatures to apply for a postage stamp to acknowledge the contributions of the granny midwives and to acknowledge the importance of maternal health in the present.