Enslaved women's resistance in the United States and Caribbean

[2] In Maria Merian's Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, she recorded that indigenous women used the plant to induce abortions.

[3][4] In the United States and Caribbean, both indigenous and enslaved women have used the peacock flower to abort pregnancies.

[5] Because of this notion, some enslaved women were caught between wanting their children both alive and dead.

[6][7] This led to some women committing infanticide to protect their children from a life of slavery.

While fleeing north with her husband and their four children, the Garners were caught at one of the homes they were hiding in.

In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs described how her owner threatened to take her children away from her if she didn't comply with his sexual advances.