Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 – 1717) was a Naturalist, an Entomologist and a Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists.? She is best known for her illustrations of plants and insects made as a result of her trips to the tropical country of Suriname on the north eastern cost of South America. via

The National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Women & the American Story.

The History of Abortifacients. … in her 1705 book Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, recounts:

The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters, use the seeds [of peacock flower (or flos pavonis)] to abort their children, so that their children will not become slaves like they are. The black slaves from Guinea and Angola have demanded to be well treated, threatening to refuse to have children. They told me this themselves.

Quote is also cited here – https://www.princeton.edu/~hos/Workshop%20II%20papers/L.%20Schiebinger.doc.pdf