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PBS News Hour

The story of Granny Hayden, a Black midwife and former slave

Season 2024 Episode 57 | 3m 05s

Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden was born into slavery on a plantation in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She remained there after being freed in 1865, going on to become a midwife. In this animated feature from our partners at StoryCorps, Hayden’s granddaughter Mary Othella Burnette tells her great-granddaughter, Debora Hamilton Palmer, about their family matriarch.

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