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Museum object · Documents and Manuscripts

Note handwritten by Amanda Carter about her family's midwifery careers

ca. 1980

Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States, North and Central America

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An undated and unsigned note attributed to midwife Amanda Carter. The note tells of Carter's ancestors who worked as midwives three generations back. She also details a story of her mother delivering a baby in the middle of a road during an emergency. Carter writes that her mother delivered over 1,000 babies and that she herself has delivered around 500 babies. The note is handwritten in blue ink on three (3) pieces of white paper. It begins "Back in the older days of the 18 hundreds. My great grandma served as a midwife, on my mother side, for this [community]. Their transportation was an ox cart."

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2011.75.12abc

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