Mary Seacole (1805–1881) was a Jamaican-Scottish nurse, healer, and businesswoman who defied racial and gender barriers to provide care during the Crimean War. Often called the "Black Florence Nightingale," she blended traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies with Western medicine, saving countless lives.

Doctor Caesar, an enslaved man living in South Carolina in the 18th century, is considered the first Black person to have their medical findings appear in print. He was known for making herbal remedies for poison using narrowleaf plantain and common horehound. At the time, notes historian Nic Butler in a piece about Caesar, white slaveholders feared being poisoned by the enslaved people who made their meals. In 1740, the colony ratified a law that made poisoning punishable by death.

Tubman used her herbal knowledge as a Union nurse during the Civil War, helping to cure soldiers of dysentery and treating infections, according to Larson. In her later years, when she lived in Auburn, New York, she would make a remedy for colic from ingredients in her garden and items foraged from the woods.