Conjure And Christianity In The 19th Century: Religious

Transcription

Swarthmore College
Works
Religion Faculty Works
Religion
Summer 1997
Conjure And Christianity In The 19th Century:
Religious Elements In African American Magic
Yvonne Patricia Chireau
Swarthmore College, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: http://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-religion
Part of the Religion Commons
Recommended Citation
Yvonne Patricia Chireau. (1997). "Conjure And Christianity In The 19th Century: Religious Elements In African American Magic".
Religion And American Culture. Volume 7, Issue 2. 225-246.
http://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-religion/38
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religion Faculty Works by an
authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture
Conjure and Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: Religious Elements in African American
Magic
Author(s): Yvonne Chireau
Source: Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Summer,
1997), pp. 225-246
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Center for the Study of Religion and
American Culture
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1123979 .
Accessed: 25/11/2014 10:22
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
University of California Press and Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture are collaborating
with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Religion and American Culture: A Journal of
Interpretation.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 130.58.65.20 on Tue, 25 Nov 2014 10:22:42 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Conjure and Christianityin theNineteenthCentury:
Religious Elementsin AfricanAmericanMagic
YvonneChireau
Shortlybeforethe turnof the nineteenthcentury,an amateur
collectorof Negro spirituals and folklorerecounted a conversation
thatshe had had with an unidentifiedAfricanAmericanclergyman.
Accordingto the collector,the clergyman,"one of the most scholarly
and noted ministersofthecolored race," admittedthat,even as a professed Christian, he found himself "under the influences of
voodooism"and otherAfricanoccultpractices.He explained that,as a
young pastor,he had grown "completelydiscouraged" afternumerous unsuccessfulattemptsto attractnew worshipersinto his congregationuntilone day an unexpectedvisitorhappened his way:
I was in mystudyprayingwhenthedooropenedand a little
"Youdon'tunderstand
de
Conjuremancameinand said softly:
todraw'em.Efyou
people.Youmustgetyoua handas a friend
willletmefixyoua luckcharm,
you'llgit'em."
The ministeraccepted the "hand" fromthe Conjurer,which was a
small,homemade talisman,and found to his surprisethathis church
was fullthe verynextweek. "For fouryears,"he recalled,"the aisles
were crowded every Sunday." Disgusted, the ministereventually
destroyed the charm, unable to reconcile his increasingpopularity
with the apparentpotencyof theoccult object."I knew it was not the
gospel's power, but that wretched 'luck ball.' " Perplexed,he concluded, "I . . . have neverbeen able to draw an audience since."'
In thehistoryofAmericanreligion,thisanecdote servesas an
intriguingreminderof the diverse currentsthathave long contended
with Christianityfor the spiritual allegiance of both clergy and
laypersons.The minister'stacitacceptance and eventual rejectionof
the Conjurer's charmillustrateshow even religiouslyobservantindividuals can adopt unorthodox,idiosyncraticbeliefs and behavior
under circumstanceswhere unbridgeablegaps in knowledge or loss
of controlmay exist.As I will argue, this storyis not an exceptional
226
ReligionandAmericanCulture
case; rather,it is an example of the kind of convergenceof beliefsthat
commonlyoccurredbetween AfricanAmericanmagic and Christianity. For generations, magic has persisted in black culture, often
obscured but deemed compatible with other spiritualtraditions.Its
widespread appeal is attested to by numerous accounts describing
conjuring relics, supernatural rituals,and occult specialists among
AfricanAmerican churchgoers.From slavery days to the present,
practitionersand clientsof the magical artshave moved freelyacross
ecclesial boundaries, drawing copiously fromthe symbols and language of Christianity.The pictureof black religionthat emerges is,
thus,more complex than formulationsdistinguishingbetween magic
and religionas separate empiricalcategorieswould indicate.
Conjure is AfricanAmericanoccultism.The termapplies to
an extensivearea of magic, practices,and lore thatincludes healing,
spells, and supernaturalobjects.Conjure belongs to a broader realm
of beliefsthathave historicallyoccupied the spiritualimaginationof
both blacks and whites. Recent studies of early American religion
have shown thata tangleof esoteric,heterodox,and occult traditions
was inheritedby European colonistsand, afterflourishingforseveral
generations,gradually was reconfiguredin the wake of eighteenthcenturyProtestantentrenchment.2Spiritualvarietyis no less prevalent today,when neopaganism, witchcraft,
New Age traditions,and
other experimentalspiritualitiescompete with established religions
and popular interpretations
of magic abound withinAmericansubcultures.Black American Conjure is but one facetin a spectrumof
supernaturalbeliefs that continues to thrive,albeit covertly,in the
United States.3
The relationshipbetwen Conjure and Christianityhas been
traditionallyregarded as inimical, due to the assumed conflict
between theimmutability
of divine will and theclaims of individuals
to be able to manipulate spiritualpower. Scholars of religionhave
been divided on the meaning of Conjure practicesin AfricanAmerican life. Some interpretershave viewed occult beliefs as residual
superstitions,the consequence of an incompleteChristianizationof
black Americansthatbegan in slavery.4Othershave portrayedmagical practices as enduring survivals of native African traditions:
detached fromtheirreligiousmoorings,occultbeliefsare seen to have
provided the spiritual fodder by which bondspersons challenged
slaveowner hegemony and retained a powerful ancestralheritage.5
Although each has some legitimacy,none of these viewpoints does
complete justice to describing the relationshipsof accommodation
and assimilationthatallowed practitionersof Conjure and Christianityto reconciletheirbeliefs.As religioustraditions,both Conjure and
in theNineteenth
Century
Conjureand Christianity
227
Christianityprovided unique resources that addressed diverse culturalneeds and interestswithinAfricanAmericanlife.
Withthearrivalof European occultismand magical beliefsin
seventeenth-and eighteenth-century
America,theparallel transferof
of
an
traditions
spiritual
equally significantgroup ofmigrants-those
of Africans-had also begun. Althoughthegenealogyfortheconveyance of Old World occult practices is more explicit for European
immigrantsthan forAfricans(a legacy of printculture),thevast funneling of persons fromthe Africancontinentinto the Westernhemisphere swiftlycountered the white colonial presence. Magic and
occultism,embedded in WestAfricanreligiousbeliefs,made thelong
and torturousjourneyto theNew World,wheretheywere assimilated
in the spiritualconsciousness of black slaves.6In contrastto African
Americanmagic, the rise of occultismamong white settlersin America resultedfromthe diffusionof folksupernaturalism,miraclelore,
and mystical philosophies, a process that began in Europe and
reached far back to medieval times.7For blacks, magic and occult
beliefswere profoundlyshaped by thereligiousworlds in which Africans had lived priorto the diaspora.
In the cultures fromwhich the slaves were drawn in West
and Central Africa,religion was not a distinct,compartmentalized
sphere of activitybut a way of lifewithinwhich all social structures,
institutions,and relationshipswere rooted. The Africanperson was
immersedin a spiritualuniverse; spiritualityprovided the basis for
knowledge. African societies were organized around belief in a
wholly sacred reality,which was manifestedboth by the material
realm of the senses, inhabitedby human beings,and by the realmof
the unseen, inhabitedby spirits,ancestors,and the dead. Traditional
Africanreligionswere orientedtowardtheinvocationofthesepowerfulotherworldlyforcesforvarious purposes,includingtheprediction
of the future,the explanation of the unknown, and the controlof
nature,persons,and events.8
Africanpriestsand practitionerswere specially trainedand
empowered to access thesupernaturalby engagingin ritualdiscourse
with divinitiesand ancestorsand by receivingrevelations.Described
by one Danish observerin thelate seventeenthcentury,themultitude
of talentspossessed by religiouspractitionerson Cape Coast (West
Africa) included "soothsaying," divination, and diverse forms of
clairvoyance:
orsoothsaying
Theypractisesuchsorcery
invariousways.One
claimstoprophesy
in a basinfull
[priest]
bylookingcontinually
ofwaterandpretending
toperceivesomething
mostwonderful
228
init.Another
thingsfromthefire.... The
proposestotellfuture
thefuture
travelall
priestswho boastoftheirabilityto foretell
overthecountry.
. . .9
of dreams,visions,
Priestlypowers also extendedto theinterpretation
and
In
African
ofthereligious
most
the
role
signs,
religions,
astrology.
was
of
an
that
that
linked
the spiritworld and
authority
intermediary
thecommunity,
whose social well-beingwas dependenton themaintenanceof orderin thecosmic realm.10
Created objectswere customarilyemployed as vessels of the
supernatural throughoutWest and Central Africa.These included
portabletalismans,called "fetishes"or "grigri"by foreignwitnesses.
In the late 1600's, Jean Barbot,a European merchant,observed the
myriad propertiesof "grigri,or spells and charms" he found to be
ubiquitous among Gold Coast blacks. Barbotcommentedthatit was
commonlybelieved by those possessing them that "one grigriwill
save them fromdrowning at sea, and anotherfrombeing killed in
war; anotheragain will give a woman a safe childbirth,anotherwill
preventfires,anotherheal fevers.... "11Nicholas Owen, an Irishsailor
in eighteenth-century
Shebro,Sierra Leone, described the powers of
"gregorybags," which were believed to preserve individuals from
"shot,knives,poyson or otheraxcedentsof life.""In thieropinions,"
he wrote,"it's impossible to hurt a man that has one of these bags
about him,which occations themto appear more resolutein the face
of thierenemys ...."12 Objects of spiritual efficacy,charms were
greatlyvalued by Africansforthe health,protection,and prosperity
oftheindividual and thecommunity.13
These two significantfeaturesof Africanreligions-the utilityof sacred charmsand the diversityof skillsembodied by religious
specialists-were imported to the American colonies during the
Atlanticslave trade. In the New World,supernaturalismtook multiple configurations
among theslaves, rangingfromfragmentedrituals
that recalled traditionalAfricanreligious observances to composite
practicesthatwere graftedonto Christianbeliefs.In theBritishcolony
of Jamaica,magical practiceswere systematizedin obeah,an Africanderived religionof curing,resistance,and divinationthatwas widespread among plantation blacks in the eighteenthand nineteenth
centuries.14Practitioners
ofobeahwere recognizedas spiritualauthorities in Caribbean slave societies."The most sensibleamong themfear
the supernaturalpowers of the Africanobeah-men,or pretendedconjurers,"wroteBritishhistorianEdward Long in 1774. Long noted that
black "priests or obeah-men" functionedas powerful "oracles" for
Jamaicanslaves "in all weightyaffairs,whetherof peace, war,or the
in theNineteenth
Century
229
pursuitof revenge."' Beyond obeahrituals,occultismwas kept alive
in New World slave communitiesin ancestralremembrances,blood
sectslike Myal,which reconciledmissionary
oaths,and antiwitchcraft
and
native
African
Christianity
spirituality.16
For blacks in Britain'smainland colonies in NorthAmerica,
Africanocculttechniquesand knowledgesmergedwiththeChristian
beliefs that some slaves adopted, although the assimilation that
occurredwas to a lesser degree thanthatof otherNew Worldfusions
of magic and religion.In contrastto its public ceremonialmanifestationsin theCaribbean,black Americanoccultismacquired largelyprivate, noncollective, and noninstitutionalizedforms. Nevertheless,
AfricanAmericanmagic can best be seen as fittinginto a continuum
of religionand supernaturalbeliefsthatextendedfromthe Old to the
New World." Like so many elementsof Africanreligionin the Westin the diaspora. In theAmerernhemisphere,magic was transformed
ican South, sources indicate that a kinship emerged between
supernaturalismand slave Christianity.As Protestantismbecame
more widely embraced and indigenized among American-born
blacks, remainingelementsof Africanmagic were incorporatedinto
organized religious life, while others were absorbed into African
Americanfolkbeliefs.
Forbiddenand unable to maintaincollectiveAfricanreligious
practices,black slaves in Americastood between the erodingcosmologies of theold orderand thenewer conceptionsderived fromChristianity.Westernreligiousideas such as the doctrineof originalsin,the
starkmoral dichotomyof good and evil, and the centralityof a textbased religiousculturewere foreignto thoseslaves who had notbeen
influencedby Islam or Christianityprior to European contact.Convertsbridgedtheintersticesthatlay betweenthetwo worlds by creating accommodations. To harmonize their views of the African
universewith the monotheisticclaims of Protestantism,
some blacks
reinterpreted
many of theirtraditionalbeliefs.The numerous divinitiesof Africanreligions,forexample,were recast.The lessergods and
deities were apotheosized in the trickster-like
figureof Satan; as animated,invisiblebeings; or were reconceivedas netherforces-otherworldly entities,ghostly presences, and disembodied spirits-the
stuffof folktradition.The sacred functionsof Africanreligiousleaders and priestswere also reformulatedin the AfricanAmericancontext. Black Christian preachers and prophets assumed a varietyof
public religiousroles,while Conjurersfulfilledprivatespiritualcommissions.Most significant,
when Africanbeliefswere transformedin
the New World,the efficaciousorientationof traditionalreligionwas
displaced. The immediacy of ritual access to divinities,gods, and
230
ancestorswas underminedby the Christiandoctrineof providence,
which posited beliefin a supremebeing as the sole mediatingauthoritybetweenhumanityand nature.As divine motiveswere considered
to be unfathomableand beyond human comprehension,unauthorized claims to supernaturalempowermentpresenteda challenge to
one of the primaryassumptionsof the Christianworldview: the singular,uncontestedsovereigntyof God's power and will. Accordingto
officialProtestantthoughtand doctrine,magic and occultismoccupied therealmofheresyand heathenism.
AfricanAmerican Conjurersviewed theirworld througha
different
lens. For them,magic and religionwere symbiotic,two compatible perspectives that relied on each other. For example, the
authorityof Conjurersand the authorityof Christianministersoften
overlapped,and manyblacks foundtheirfunctionstobe complementary.William Webb was one such individual who embodied both
roles. A bondsman in Kentucky,Webb recalled thathe had prepared
special bags of roots forotherslaves to carryin order to keep peace
betweenmastersand bondspersonson local plantations.The roots,he
explained, were to be used in conjunctionwith prayer.When asked
by otherslaves about the functionof the bags, he explained, "I told
them those roots were able to make them faithfulwhen they were
callingon theSupremeBeing,and to keep [their]mind at workall the
time." Webb, who also believed in the mystical significanceof
dreams,prophecy,and "sleight of hand," representeda transitional
figurewho combined the practicesof occult specialist and religious
functionary.18
William Webb was not unique. A varietyof persons moved
between Christianityand the spiritual prospects that magic both
promised and fulfilled.In the 1840's, Mary Livermoredescribed a
black preachershe had met on a farmin Virginia,"a man of many
gifts."Accordingto Livermore,"Uncle" Aaron,thislocal ministerand
was simultaneouslypopular as "a conjurerwho could raise
exhorter,
evil spirits,and a god-man who wore a charm,and could become
invisibleat any moment."19Anotherslave known only as Elihu was
recognized as "an old and creditablemember of the church,"who
was as "punctilious as a Pharisee" in his religious observances,
accordingto one writer.Nonetheless,Elihu also placed greatfaithin
charms,Conjuring,witches,spells, and his own giftsforthe "miraculous cures" of animals and humans thathe performedin the South
Carolina countryside.20
Similarpatternscontinued long afteremancipation.In Missouri,in 1887,folkloristMary A. Owen wroteof a sextonshe had met
in an AfricanMethodistchurchwhose authorityextended to his role
in theNineteenth
Century
231
as a powerfulsupernaturalspecialist. He and othersin his circleof
"Voodoos" saw no contradictionbetween his two positions.21
In rural
Mississippi shortlyafterthe turnof the nineteenthcentury,a white
anthropologistcame upon several famous local "Voodoo doctors"
who were also well-known"Reverends" whose ministrieswere supported by members of the community:"[T]hose who are devoutly
religiousare also devout believersin currentfolksuperstitions,"she
noted, "and do not look upon Christianityand voodoo as conflicting
in any way."22Otherearly-twentieth-century
supernaturalpractitioners,such as JimmyBrisbane,were activeparticipantsin local religious
life.Brisbane,a successfulroot doctor and Conjurer,hosted weekly
prayermeetingsand churchgatheringswhere clientsof black occultism and AfricanAmerican Christianswere broughttogetherin his
home on John'sIsland, South Carolina.23Allan Vaughan, a Conjurer
"of greatrepute"fromtheJordanclan in NorthCarolina,"conducted
prayer meetings and sat on the mourner's bench" in the Baptist
And perhaps themostfamous
church,accordingto a local historian.24
of
Gullah
the
"Doctor"
Buzzard, was himselfa favored
Conjurer all,
of
Christian
It
causes.
was
said
thatBuzzard financedand built
patron
two of the largestchurcheson St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in
theearlytwentiethcentury.25
Conjurerswere oftendevout individuals. William Adams, a
formerslave fromTexas,cultivateda distinguishedreputationamong
his peers forhis esotericinterpretations
ofbiblicallore.He was sought
afterforhis healing and magical knowledge. In an interviewat the
age of ninety-one,Adams attributedhis supernaturalexpertiseto the
power of God and foundjustificationforhis occultbeliefsin thedoctrinesof Christianity:
Theream lotsoffolks,and educatedonestoo,thatsayswe-uns
believesin superstition.
Well,'tiscause theydon'tunderstand.
'MembertheLord,insomeofHis ways,canbe mysterious.
The
Biblesaysso. Theream somethingstheLordwantsall folksto
know,some thingsjust the chosenfew to know,and some
thingsno one shouldknow.Now,just'cause you don'tknow
'boutsomeoftheLord'slaws,'tain'tsuperstition
ifsomeother
and believesin such..... WhentheLord
personunderstands
givessuchpowertoa person,itjustcomesto'em.
WilliamAdams believed that"special persons" were chosen to "show
de powah" of God, as was writtenin the Gospel of Mark. Such
appeals to esotericknowledgebased upon personal exegesiswere not
uncommonforpractitionersof Conjure.26
232
Supernatural specialists relied on their experience of the
divine for guidance. A student fromVirginia's Hampton Institute
wrote a letterin 1878 to the school concerninga well-knownpractitionerwho was also a deeply religiouswoman: "[S]he had a special
revelationfromGod," he remarked,"as do all the Conjure doctorsI
have ever heard of."27When asked by a white professorwhere she
had learned her knowledge of divinationand "tricking,"or casting
spells, a Conjure woman in Alabama named Seven Sisters replied,
"It's a spiritin me thattells-a spiritfromthe Lord JesusChrist.... I
tricksin thename o' the Lord."28Newbell Niles Puckett,a whitesocitheranksofblack Hoodoo workersin therural
ologistwho infiltrated
South duringthe early twentiethcentury,commentedon the conscientiousness and piety that was demonstratedby almost all of the
occult specialiststhathe came across. Far fromprojectingan irreverent style of conduct, Puckett noted, many Conjurersbelieved that
theirvocations should reflectproper dispositions of religious devotionand service.29
Evidence indicatesthatthe enchantedworld of Conjure and
the sacred realm of African American Christianityintertwinedin
black folkthought.Some Conjurerswere summoned to theircareers
in ways that were evocative of the Christiancall to ministry.Zora
Neale Hurstonrecountedsuch an eventfromtheexperienceof Father
Abraham,the"Hoodoo Doctor" of Lawtey,Florida,who "converted"
to being a rootworkerand healer aftera sudden revelation:
One day as he was plowingundertheparchingsun,he suddenlystopped,his facebathedin perspiration.
Callinghiswife
he said, "Honey,I jes can't do dis yerework;I has a feelin'
God's donecalledhischileforhighert'ings.EversenceI beena
boyI donehad dis yerefeelin'butI jes didn'obey.'Quenchnot
thespirit,'saithde Lord."Throwing
downhis plow Abraham
leftthefield,nevertoreturn
toitagainas a laborer.30
It was not unusual forblack Conjure practitionersto profess
a commitmentto Christianity
while acknowledgingthepowers of the
occult world. "Uncle" John Spencer, a devout Baptist and former
slave, told WorksProgressAdministrationinterviewersin the 1930's
thathe stillbelieved in "tricking,"or malign magic, explaining that
Conjure had been used extensivelyforrevengein the days when he
was a slave in Virginia.31A nineteenth-century
Georgia freedman,
Braziel Robinson, proudly described himselfas a "member of the
church" with "a seat in Conference." Robinson's claim to occult
power was thathe had been born with a "caul"-that amnioticveil
coveringa newborn's face-and could see spirits,one that"prowled
in theNineteenth
Century
233
around" and anotherthatinhabitedhis body. He apparentlysaw no
disparitybetween his mediumship abilitiesand his religiousbeliefs
because, as he put it, "My two spirits are good spirits,and have
power over evil spirits,and unless my mind is evil, can keep me
fromharm."32In the late 1800's, a folkloristinterviewedoccult specialists who met regularlyin a Missouri AfricanMethodist church
where some were members.The potential conflictbetween Conjure
and Christianitywas pointed out by the writer,who condescendingly described "the old-fashioned negro, who is destined to have
no son like him, who conjures in the name of his Africandevil on
Saturday,and goes to a Christianchurch,sings, prays and exhorts,
and after'meetin" invites the ministerto a dinner of stolen poultry
on Sunday."33
Not all churchgoingoccultspecialists,however,were benign.
In post-CivilWar Arkansas,a formerbondsman practicedConjure on
unsuspectingvictimsout of "meanness" and belonged at the same
time to a local Baptistcongregation.It was said that he dabbled in
Hoodoo because he knew he had "'suranceer salvationanyhow."34
Anotherlate-nineteenth-century
Arkansas Conjurerwas "renowned
in threecounties" forhis alleged role in the deaths of at least tenmen
and women by occultmeans. "He is a pious man and a deacon in the
church,"scoffeda reporter,"which used to surpriseme untilI knew
more about theAfricanbrand ofpiety."35
Ministersand preachersutilized thenegativeside of Conjureand magic. Newbell Puckettuncovered a strand in southern folklore that explained this seeming
duplicity:thereare "good and bad hoodoos," he found, "the good
hoodoo oftenbeing parthoodoo and partpreacher."36
For many who practicedConjure,the proximityof the spirit
realm dramatized the unpredictable,dangerous presence of forces
thatcould strikeat the most faithfulof believers.Whitebusinessman
Thaddeus Norriswroteof a young slave in antebellumNew Orleans
who, "although a consistent professor of the Christian religion,"
believed that he had been "bewitched" by "one of his co-worshiptheboy was takento a cityphysicianand laterrecovpers." Terrified,
ered fromhis malady afterthedoctoracknowledgedhis complaintas
being the work of Conjurers.37So common was the threatof malevolent occultism in religious circles that,when the "most prominent
member in the Baptistcolored church" in an unidentifiednorthern
town fellsick,she was immediatelyconvinced thatshe was a victim
of a "fix" due to thejealousy of one of the choir members.38
Neither
were churchofficialsimmune to theConjurer'spowers. Accordingto
an accountby an ex-slave in Lynchburg,a pastorwho had graduated
fromVirginiaSeminarybelieved thathe had been somehow poisoned
234
by a spurned woman. Even afterreceivingmedicine froma Conjure
doctor,he took ill and died.39A similarstoryfroma formerbondsperson in nineteenth-century
Georgia reportedthat a hardshellBaptist
died
from
preacher
Conjure afterbelieving thatsnakes had invaded
his body.40And in an 1874 article,theNew YorkTimesstatedthatithad
confirmedreportsin Clarksville,Tennessee,thata black preacherhad
been "hoodooed" and, going "hopelessly insane," ultimatelyhad to
leave his pulpit.41
As in Christianity,
the spiritualand thephysicalworlds were
traversedby the ritualactivityof occult specialists.The will of God
was divined and revealed in miracles and signs, while capricious
forceswere harnessedand controlled.In some instances,supernatural
practitionerswere able to control the very elements. Practitioners
such as Tante Dolores of New Orleans could quiet a stormby splitting it with an axe, while a "seventh son," Overlea of Mississippi,
was able to produce rain by crossingtwo matches with salt.42These
customs indicate that the arena thatwas governed by divine activityin folkreligious thoughtwas believed to be inclusive of the natural sphere of earthlyforces.43Similar ideas would not have been
alien to many eighteenth-and nineteenth-century
Christianministers who tapped popular supernaturalismby claiming possession
of divine giftsand attributesthat enabled them to work miracles,
signs, and wonders.44
Conjurers often appropriated rituals and sacred symbols
fromChristianity.
Many charmswere endowed withmagical potency
"in the name of the Lord."45Religious accoutrementsadopted from
Christiantraditionswere enlistedby black specialistsforpurposes of
protectionand prediction. For some blacks, the rich iconographic
influencesof Catholicisminformedtheirselectionof occult artifacts.
Old Divinity,a Mississippian Conjurerwho claimed to be the grandson of a witch, was buried clutchinghis cherished silver medal of
Saint Anthonyand the infantJesus.46In Georgia, W. D. Siegfried,a
Baptist missionary who lived among AfricanAmericans afterthe
Civil War,complained bitterlyof the sale and disseminationof religious books and pictures,which were frequentlyadopted foruse as
holy objectsand charms,to thefreedmenin Augusta. Especiallynotorious was the"LetterfromJesusChrist,"whichcirculatedextensively,
accordingto Siegfried,among black families."The poor people have
been deluded intothebeliefthattheLetteris genuine,"he railed,"that
itwas writtenespeciallyforthem,thatthosepossessing itand exhibiting it in theirdwellings,will enjoy certaingreatprotectionand blessings enumeratedin the letter."The letter,which claimed to guarantee
in theNineteenth
Century
235
protectionfromnaturaldisasters,theft,and ensure safe childbirthfor
women,was apparentlythestockofRoman Catholicmerchandisers.47
Sacred paraphernalia were utilized in other unorthodox
A
common divination procedure among African American
ways.
occult practitionersinvolved the use of the Bible for detection of
thieves and criminals.Jacob Stroyer,who had been a bondsman in
South Carolina, gave a detailed account of the process employed by
slaves to findburglarsin theplantationcommunity:
oneofwhichhad a biblewitha string
[F]ourmenwereselected,
attachedto it,and each manhad his own partto perform....
cabinwitheveryman
Thesefourwould commenceat thefirst
and theone who heldthestringattachedto the
of thefamily,
biblewouldsayJohnorTom,whatevertheperson'snamewas,
you are accusedof stealinga chickenor a dressfromSam at
sucha time,then[one]oftheothertwowouldsay,"Johnstole
thechicken,"and anotherwould say,"Johndid notstealthe
chicken."Theywould continuetheirassertions. . . thenthe
menwouldputa stickintheloopofthestring
thatwas attached
to thebible,and hold it as stillas theycould,one would say,
and theSon and oftheHoly
"Bible,in thenameoftheFather,
Ghost,ifJohnstolethatchicken,
turn,"thatis,ifthemanhad
stolenwhathe was accusedof,thebiblewas to turnaroundon
thestring,
and thatwouldbe a proofthathe did stealit.48
A formerslave fromTennessee,ByrlAnderson,told how his
white masterwould "tell many a fortune... by hangingthe Bible on
a key and sayingcertainwords." Anderson recalled,"When the Bible
would come to me, it would just spin. That meantthatI was [a] lucky
and righteousman."49 In anothernineteenth-century
account,folklorist Sarah Handy describeda systemof divinationknown as "turning
the sifter"in which a "man of standingin the church"was able to
detectan unknown thiefor wrongdoerby balancing a sifterbetween
two chairs. She surmised that the ritual was an Africansurvival
adapted by black Americans: "Substitutea raw-hide shield on two
upright spears, and a Voodoo incantation for the Christianized
chant,"she proposed, "and you have the riteas it is practicedtoday
on theGuinea Coast."50
The lore and images of the Bible provided a fertilefield for
AfricanAmerican occult specialists.Accordingto writerZora Neale
Hurston, the Bible was considered by many Conjurers to be the
"greatestConjure book in the world," while Moses was "honored as
the greatestConjurer."51Other practitionersswore by the Seventh
Book of Moses, a formulaictreatiseof occult science and philosophy
thatwas consideredby some blacks to be the "Hoodoo bible."52Belief
236
Religionand AmericanCulture
in thepowers contained in writingand lettersmay have increasedas
literacyacquired a near-sacredsignificanceformanyblack Americans
in thepost-emancipationera.53
Conjure specialists and clients alike employed the spiritual
idiom ofChristianity.
Some prayed in orderto cast spells while others
spoke in tongues when performingrituals.5 In 1901,black novelist
Charles Chesnuttinterviewedan aged woman who told how she was
spared fromthe malicious powers of a Conjurer aftershe heard a
voice fromthe "Spirit er de Lawd."55 In Georgia during the early
twentiethcentury,ex-slave JackAtkinsonasserted that he was protectedfromConjurersthroughthe power of Jesus."6A twentieth-centuryauthor in Washington,D.C., described a case where a "hoodoo
man" approached a woman who had been conjured, saying that,
"with the help of the Bible," he would be able to cure her. "He read
fromthe good book and prayed aloud forthe salvation of her soul,"
said thewriter,"beforehe preceded [sic]to mutterto himself"mystical incantationsthatwould bring about her healing.57Finally,Patsy
Moses, a formerslave in Texas, recalled how her grandfather,a
"hardshell" Baptist preacher,was sought out by church members
who wanted him to "break spells" thathad been placed on themby
"voodoo or de charmsby de conjurdoctor."This particularcase suggests thatConjure sometimesrepresentedan alternative,competing
formof spiritualauthorityforblacks."8
The most common way to removea "fix,"a "hex," a "trick,"
or bad fortune,was to enlist the services of anotherConjurer.For
manyblacks,illnesswas viewed as thework ofthedevil,and Conjure
was associated with the universalcontestbetween the forcesof good
and evil. Some persons who had been afflictedwould call upon God
to reversetheircondition.59While theirtechniquescould vary,it was
not unheard of forConjure specialiststo prescribea cure forillnessin
combinationwithprayer.Rossa Cooley,a whiteeducatorstationedon
the Sea Islands after the Civil War, described how one ex-slave
woman she knew was convinced she had been conjured and sought
help fromthe local "colored doctor,"who prescribedmedicine and
prayerforrelieffromthe affliction.60Even as the Bible and othertexts
were sometimesviewed as written
charmsthroughwhich power was
exercised,prayerwas oftenadopted as a spokencharmor incantation.
In the Christiantraditionof prayer,black folk appealed to God for
protectionand moral strength.But a largerprovince of powers was
also available throughprayerforspecificentreaties.The use of biblical sayingsand prayersas ingredientsin magical spells and charmsis
an elementof the occult traditionthatdates as farback as the origins
ofChristianity
itself.61
in theNineteenth
Century
237
The items thatConjurersemployed to cure oftenhad enormous sacred significance.Occult specialistsmade use ofnaturalmaterials that they believed were endowed with spiritual efficacy,
includingleaves, bark,and organicessences,many named forsacred
figuresand objects. Herbs called Angel's Root, Devil's Shoestring,
bowels-of-Christ,and blood-of-Jesusleaf were utilized to heal and
give the carriercontroland protection.Individuals who possessed
Samson's Root or Saint-John's-wort(High John the Conqueror)
boasted of supernaturalabilitiesand good fortune.The leaves of the
Peace Plant and the King of the Woods, patternedin the shape of a
cross,were sacred and powerfulifused with a prayerto "the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost."62
the beliefsystemsof many
Supernaturalisminterpenetrated
AfricanAmericanChristians.The God of Jesusand Moses was also
thesovereignlord of thespiritworld whose powers were occasionally
witnessedin "signs and wonders." To some, it was all a matterofrevelation. "The old folks... knows more about the signs thatthe Lord
uses to reveal his laws than the folks of today," recalled a ninetyformerslave. "Some of the folkslaughs ... says it am
three-year-old
but
superstition, it am knowinghow theLord revealsHis laws."63For
others,supernaturalpower revealed God's omnipotence.As a legacy
of traditionalAfricanthought,black Americanreligionfused thenatural and supernaturalarenas. For manyslaves and ex-slaves,thespiritual realm remained a densely populated universe,a world where
ghosts,witches,and apparitionsheralded the presence of restlessor
malevolentforces.To Christians,biblicalcharactershad a real,earthly
presenceand interveneddirectlyin human affairs,as did otherpowerful,unseen spirit beings. Furthermore,in black folk belief, the
boundaries between the self and the spiritwere oftenexperiencedas
permeable.Conjure practices,like AfricanAmericanpossession ceremonies and healingrituals,placed a greatemphasis on theacquisition
of supernaturalpower foraddressingmundane needs.64
This lack of a stark dichotomybetween the sacred and the
secular led many blacks to view the supernatural as impinging
directlyupon present-dayhuman experience. It is perhaps within
such a contextthatthe distinctiveemphasis on divine interventionin
AfricanAmerican religious life both beforeand afteremancipation
can be understood.The folkreligionof AfricanAmericanslaves put a
premiumon the spiritas an immediateand effectiveforce.Gaining
access to this supernatural power was an enduring concern that
linked Christianityand Conjure. The practiceof prayer,meditation,
theblack traditionof "shouting,"and the emotionalrelinquishingof
selfas experiencedin conversionwere all aspectsofAfricanAmerican
238
religiouslife,whose goal was to bringthe individual into a supernatural or transcendentexperience.The occult practiceof manipulating
forcesthroughvarious physicalmeans attemptedsimilargoals. It was
this theurgic
function,the interventionof the supernatural,thatproduced much of the variety-and some of the moral tension-that
existed in the folkreligionsof the slaves and theirdescendants.Yet,
for occult practitionersand theirclients,Conjure was a legitimate
appropriationof spiritualenergiesand forces.
Of course,manyblacks remainedskepticalor disbelievingof
Conjure and occultism,as some did of Christianity.Some rejected
on otheraspects of supernatumagic yetequivocated when reflecting
ral belief."I never know much about de hoodoo, but de spirits,yes,"
explained one formerslave. "God is a spirit,ain't he?" George Wood,
who had been a bondsman in South Carolina, insisted that he had
never seen ghosts and had never heard of anyone being conjured.
"I don't believe in those thingsanyhow," he remarked,but he discreetlyrevealed his wariness of the reputationthatSouth Carolina
blacks had forpracticingfolkmagic. Katie McCarts, a formerslave
fromOld Fort,Georgia, rejected any notion of the efficacyof Conjure charms. "Now me, I don't believe people can put something
under steps or under your house that will harm you." She did,
however, place much stock in signs and omens, especially portentous dreams and good luck practices, traditionswith which she
was "plenty 'sperienced."65
The coexistenceof AfricanAmericanChristianityand occultism in black culturecan be seen as reflecting
a complex ambivalence.
the
nature
of
the
Certainly,
supernaturalpower thatwas implied in
tended
to
fosterreservationson the part of many
Conjure practices
blacks, for occultismwas utilized alternativelyto cure or to inflict
harmupon others.In many cases, malignConjurewas manifestedby
physical maladies and inexplicable adversities such as natural
disasters or sudden death. As such, Conjure served as a powerful
theoryfor explaining unanticipated instances of misfortune.More
preciselythan Christianity,Conjure articulatedan epistemologyby
which African Americans could understand and address their
afflictions.In its elaborate rituals, its therapeuticorientation,and
its multiple expressions,Conjure advanced the prospect of directly
resolving one's own suffering.
Conjure and Christianitywere complementaryin that they
each responded to a distinctiveset of culturalconcernssurrounding
issues of explanationand control.Both,forexample, offereda means
for comprehendingevil and misfortunein human existence.Yet, in
the Conjuringtradition,the occurrenceof illness,bad luck, and even
in theNineteenth
Century
239
death was likelyto be viewed in personal terms:the source of one's
distresscould be a malevolentspell, a hidden charm,or a "fix"perpetrated by a vengeful person. Withinblack folk Christianity,these
afflictions
were interpretedas the consequence of human sinfulness,
the work of Satan, or as part of a greaterplan withinGod's will. In
both traditions,evil was identifiedand located withinone or more
explanatoryframeworks,but, for addressing specific conditions of
misfortunewithinAfricanAmericanculture,Conjure and Christianityeach offeredcontrastingtherapeuticpossibilities.
In the era of slavery,questions of securityloomed large in
AfricanAmericanexperience.The social dictatesof the slave institution created environmentsthat were rifewith uncertaintyforblack
bondspersons,who consistentlyendured threatsofviolence,sickness,
separation,destitution,and theever-presentrealitiesofracismwithin
theirlives. The day-to-dayconditionsof enslavementengendered a
varietyofculturalresponsesfrommembersofAfricanAmericancommunities.For its part,Conjure spoke directlyto the slaves' perceptions of powerlessness and danger by providing alternative-but
The Conjuringtralargelysymbolic-means foraddressingsuffering.
ditionallowed practitionersto defendthemselvesfromharm,to cure
theirailments,and to achieve some conceptual measure of control
over personal adversity.Christianityalso addressed suffering
but did
so primarilyas a universalsystemof moral,soteriological,and ethical beliefs.As AlbertRaboteau has noted, as a religion,Christianity
was "well suited fordescribingthe ultimatecause of thingsand the
ultimate end of history" because, in many ways, it prioritized
issues of "personal moralityand personal salvation" above questions of personal security.66 Conjure, however, was utilized for
everyday needs that ranged fromprotectionfromphysical violation to treatmentof criticalhealth matters.Religiously pragmatic,
African Americans were inclined to invoke Conjure, Christianity,
or both for addressing any number of concerns they might face in
theirimmediate circumstances.It was possible forAfricanAmericans to shiftbetween Conjure and Christianitybecause both were
anchored in their perceptions of an enchanted universe, and both
metneeds thattheothercould not.
Occult beliefsretainedtheirpower withinblack folkculture
long afterslavery ended. More recently,the efficaciousimpulses of
Spiritualisttraditions,sectarian Christian healing, and New World
Africanreligionshave channeled supernaturalisminto institutional
formationsthataddress misfortunein similarways, thussupplanting
the unique functionsof Conjure. Nevertheless,duringthe nineteenth
century,Conjure emerged as a viable religious alternativeto which
240
Hismany blacks turnedin orderto give meaning to theirsuffering.
African
has
Americans
with
sources
of
torically,religion
provided
with
with
moral
and
of
visions
deliverfoundations,
hope,
prophetic
ance frompresent-daytrials.Christianity
helped to explain and make
sense of the unknown, to order the believer's conceptual universe.
AfricanAmerican magic functionedin similar ways, but as I have
an added measure ofcontrol.
shown,Conjure granteditspractitioners
At the heartof black spiritualityis an innerquest forfulfillment,
an
abiding searchforsecurity.In AfricanAmericanculture,theworlds of
Conjure and Christianityconverged,creatingempoweringresponses
to misfortuneand otherpersistentneeds in human experience.
Notes
1. Jeanette
RobinsonMurphy,"The Survivalof AfricanMusicin
America,"Appleton'sPopularScienceMonthly55 (May-October1899): 663. The
American
isbelievedtobe spiritually
efficahand,inAfrican
magictraditions,
ciousand powerful
foritsowner.Suchobjectswerefeatured
elementsin the
ofblackoccultspecialists.
Fordescriptions
and ingredients
magicalrepertoire
ofAfrican
American
handsand othercharms,see JamesHaskins,Voodoo
and
Hoodoo:TheirTradition
and Craftas RevealedbyActualPractitioners
(New York:
Steinand Day, 1978),155-70;and NewbellNiles Puckett,
FolkBeliefs
ofthe
Southern
ofNorthCarolinaPress,1926),231-41.
Negro(ChapelHill:University
2. See JonButler,Awashin a Sea ofFaith:Christianizing
theAmerican
Press,1990),67-97;JohnL. Brooke,
People(Cambridge:HarvardUniversity
TheRefiner's
Fire:TheMakingofMormonCosmology,
1644-1844(New York:
Press,1994);and RichardGodbeer,TheDevil'sDominCambridgeUniversity
ion:Magic and Religionin EarlyNew England(New York:Cambridge Univer-
sityPress,1992).
in theUnitedStates
3. EarlierstudiesofblackConjuretraditions
include Puckett,FolkBeliefsoftheSouthern
Negro;HarryMiddletonHyatt,Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft-Rootwork:
BeliefsAcceptedbyManyNegroesand White
5 vols. (WashingPersons,TheseBeingOrallyRecorded
AmongBlacksand Whites,
andHoodoo;
ton,D.C.: HyattFoundation,
Haskins,Voodoo
1970-74);
and,more
whofindsat theheartofAfrican
American
recently,
TheophusSmith,
spirituas exhibitedin blackbiblicaltraditions.
alitya "conjurational"
perspective,
Theophus Smith,ConjuringCulture:BiblicalFormations
ofBlackAmerica(New
York:OxfordUniversity
Press,1994).
4. See, forexample,Puckett,FolkBeliefsoftheSouthern
Negro,520-21;
see also Henry Mitchell,BlackBelief:FolkBeliefsofBlacksin Americaand West
(NewYork:Harperand Row,1975),26-27.
Africa
5. See MargaretCreel,"A PeculiarPeople":SlaveReligionand CommunityCultureamongtheGullahs(New York:New YorkUniversityPress, 1988),
in theNineteenth
Century
241
Down by theRiverside:A SouthCarolina
esp. chap. 9. See also Charles Joyner,
Slave Community(Urbana: Universityof Illinois Press, 1984); and Mechal
to an Afro-Baptist
Faith(Princeton,N.J.:
Sobel, Trabelin'On: The Slave Journey
PrincetonUniversityPress,1988).
6. My usage of "magic" as a category distinct from other
"religious" means of mediating the supernatural may be misleading.
Although the termsare exogenous, Africansthemselveshave distinguished
between magical and religious acts based upon the intentionsof the practitionersratherthanthefocusofspecificpractices.In a frequently
citedstatement
on Zairois religious movements,anthropologistsde Craemer,Vansina, and
Fox argue thatthe differencebetween magical and religiousacts in African
cultureslies in the formulationof theirgoals: magic is selfish,derivingfrom
colpersonal motives,and is sociallydisapproved. Religionis group-oriented,
lective,and holds positive implicationsforthe largercommunity.Of course,
theynote thatin lifethe categoriesoverlap, such as with the use of charms
thatmay affecttheindividualbut may benefittheentirecommunity.See Willy
de Craemer,JanVansina, and Renee Fox, "Religious Movements in Central
Africa:A TheoreticalStudy,"Comparative
Studiesin Societyand History18,no. 4
(October1976): 458-75.
7. On thediffusionofmagic in America,see Butler,Awashina Sea of
Faith,67-97; on magic in premodernEurope, see ValerieI. J.Flint,TheRise of
Magic in Early ModernEurope(Princeton,N.J.: PrincetonUniversityPress,
1991); Keith Thomas, Religionand theDeclineofMagic (New York: Scribner,
1971); and Richard Kieckhefer,Magic in theMiddle Ages (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversityPress,1990).
8. See Robin Horton,"AfricanConversion,"Africa41, no. 2 (1971):
96-97.See also Edward Geoffrey
Parrinder,WestAfricanReligion:A Studyofthe
and
Practices
Akan,
Ewe,
Yoruba,Ibo,and KindredPeoples,2d ed. (LonBeliefs
of
don: EpworthPress,1961),11-24;and Dominique Zahan, TheReligion,Spirituality,and ThoughtofTraditional
Africa(Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press,
1979).
9. "WilhelmJohannMilller's DescriptionoftheFetu Country,16629," in GermanSourcesforWestAfricanHistory,1599-1669,ed. and trans.Adam
Jones(Wiesbaden,Germany:F. Steiner,1983), 171-72.
10. See JohnThornton,AfricaandAfricansin theMakingoftheAtlantic
World,1400-1680(New York:CambridgeUniversityPress,1992),238-46.
11. JeanBarbot,Barboton Guinea:The Writings
ofJeanBarboton West
Africa,1678-1712,ed. P. E. H. Hair (London: HakluytSociety,1992),86,228.
12. Nicholas Owen, Journalofa Slave-Dealer:A ViewofSomeRemarkableAxcedentsin theLifeofNics. Owenon theCoastofAfricaandAmerica
fromthe
Year1746 totheYear1757,ed. EvelineMartin(London: Routledge,1930),50.
242
13. See de Craemer,Vansina, and Fox, "Religious Movements in
CentralAfrica,"460; and WyattMacGaffey,"FetishismRevisited:Kongo nkisi
in Sociological Perspective,"Africa47, no. 2 (1977): 179-200.
14. See Michael Mullin, Africain America:Slave Acculturation
and
Resistancein theAmericanSouthand theBritishCaribbean,1736-1831(Urbana:
UniversityofIllinoisPress,1992),175-79;see also Orlando Patterson,TheSociand Structure
ologyofSlavery:An AnalysisoftheOrigins,Development
ofNegro
SlaveSocietyinJamaica(Rutherford,
N.J.:FairleighDickinsonUniversityPress,
1969).
15. Edward Long, The Historyof Jamaica:or, GeneralSurveyof the
Ancientand ModernStateofThatIsland,3 vols. (London: FrankCass and Company,1774;repr.,1970),2:416,473.
16. See Mullin,Africain America,esp. chaps. 3 and 8; on Myalism,see
Philip D. Curtin,TwoJamaicas:TheRoleofIdeas in a TropicalColony,1830-1865
(Cambridge:Harvard UniversityPress,1955); Monica Schuler,"Myalism and
the AfricanReligious Traditionin Jamaica,"in Africaand theCaribbean:The
Legaciesofa Link,ed. MargaretE. Crahan (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins UniversityPress,1979); and MaryTurner,SlavesandMissionaries:TheDisintegration
of
JamaicaSlave Society,1787-1834(Urbana: Universityof IllinoisPress,1982).
17. On the transferand interactionof Old World supernaturalism
and occult worldviews forAfricansand Europeans, see Mechal Sobel, The
WorldTheyMade Together:
Blackand WhiteValuesin Eighteenth-Century
Virginia
(Princeton,N.J.:PrincetonUniversityPress,1987),79-89.
18. WilliamWebb,TheHistoryofWilliamWebb(Detroit:E. Hoekstra,
1873),22.
19. Mary Livermore,TheStoryofMy Life;or,TheSunshineand Shadow
ofSeventyYears(Hartford,Conn.: A. D. Worthington,
1899),254.
20. Charles Raymond, "The Religious Life of the Negro Slave,"
Harper'sNewMonthlyReview27 (June-November
1863): 820-23.
21. Mary Alicia Owen, "Among the Voodoos," Proceedingsof the
International
Folklore
Congress2 (1898): 243.
22. Hortense Powdermaker,AfterFreedom:A CulturalStudyin the
Deep South(New York:Viking,1939),286.
23. See Mamie Garvin Fields, with Karen Fields, LemonSwampand
OtherPlaces:A CarolinaMemoir(New York:The Free Press,1983),121.
24. Roy Johnson,The Fabled DoctorJimJordan:A Storyof Conjure
(Murphreesboro,N.C.: Johnson,1963),22.
25. See J.E. McTeer,High Sheriff
oftheLow Country(Beaufort,S.C.:
BeaufortBook Co., 1970),22.
in theNineteenth
Century
243
26. BenjaminA. Botkin,ed., Lay My BurdenDown: A FolkHistoryof
Slavery(Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1945), 36; see also George
Rawick, TheAmericanSlave:A Composite
Autobiography,
supplement,series 2,
vol. 2, TexasNarratives,
pt. 1 (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press,1977),16-17.
27. Leonora Herron, "Conjuring and Conjure Doctors," Southern
Workman
24, no. 7 (July1895): 117.
28. Carl Carmer,Stars Fell on Alabama (New York: LiteraryGuild,
1934),218.
29. Puckett,FolkBeliefsoftheSouthern
Negro,565.
30. Zora Neale Hurston,TheSanctified
Church(Berkeley,Calif.:Turtle
Island Press, 1981), 16. For a similarversionof a Conjurer's "call," see John56.
son, TheFabledDoctorJimJordan,
31. See Charles Perdue,Thomas Barden,and RobertPhillips,Weevils
in the Wheat:Interviewswith VirginiaEx-Slaves (Charlottesville:University
Press of Virginia,1976),278.
32. Roland Steiner,"Braziel Robinson Possessed of Two Spirits,"
Journal
ofAmericanFolklore13 (1900),repr.in MotherWitfromtheLaughingBarrel:Readingsin theInterpretation
Folklore,ed. Alan Dundes
ofAfro-American
(New York:Garland Publishing,1973),378; see also VirginiaPounds Brown,
TotingtheLeadRow (University:UniversityofAlabama Press,1981),127.
33. Owen, "Among theVoodoos," 239.
34. BostonHerald,"Life in Arkansas,"May 29, 1897,20.
35. Octave Thanet,"Folklorein Arkansas,"Journal
ofAmericanFolklore5 (January-March
1892): 122.
36. Puckett,FolkBeliefsoftheSouthern
Negro,205.
37. Thaddeus Norris,"Negro Superstitions,"Lippincott's
Magazine6
1870),
(July
repr.in TheNegroand His Folklorein Nineteenth
CenturyPeriodicals,
ed. BruceJackson(Austin:UniversityofTexas Press,1967),139.
38. Murphy,"The Survivalof AfricanMusic," 334.
39. Oral narrative,Rev.P. L. Harvey,Lynchburg,Virginia,University
ofVirginiaSpecial Collections,n.d., folder2, heading 279, 1-4.
40. Rawick,TheAmericanSlave,vol. 13, GeorgiaNarratives,
pt. 4, 248.
41. New YorkTimes,December 20, 1874.
42. AlbertRaboteau, Slave Religion:The "InvisibleInstitution"
in the
Antebellum
South(New York:OxfordUniversityPress, 1978), 81; Ruth Bass,
"Mojo," in MotherWitfromtheLaughingBarrel,ed. Dundes, 382.
244
43. Supernaturalbeliefswere not unfamiliarto participantsin the
Christiantradition.For example,a kind of manipulationofnaturalforceswas
also sanctionedin some cases withinnineteenth-century
Protestantevangelicalism. Two black female preachers,Rebecca Jacksonand Amanda Smith,
recorded as evidence of their"giftsof power" theirabilitiesto controlthe
weather and curtail threateninghuman behavior. See Jean Humez, "'My
SpiritEye': Some FunctionsofSpiritualand VisionaryExperiencein theLives
ofFive Black WomenPreachers,1810-1880,"in Womenand theStructure
ofSociSelected
Research
the
Berkshire
the
on
Women,
ety:
from Fifth
Conference
Historyof
ed. BarbaraJ.Harris (Durham, N.C.: Duke UniversityPress, 1984), 136, 277;
Jean Humez, ed., Giftsof Power: The Writingsof RebeccaCox Jackson,Black
ShakerEldress(Amherst:Universityof MassachusettsPress, 1981),
Visionary,
The StoryoftheLord'sDealings
22-23; and Amanda Smith,An Autobiography:
withMrs. AmandaSmith,theColoredEvangelist(Chicago: Meyer,1893; repr.,
New York:OxfordUniversityPress,1988),158.
44. See Butler,Awashin a Sea ofFaith,236-41;and Donald E. Byrne,
No FootofLand:Folklore
Itinerants
(Metuchen,N.J.:ScareofAmericanMethodist
crow Press,1975),155-70.
45. Owen, "Among theVoodoos," 232.
46. See RuthBass, "The LittleMan," in MotherWitfromtheLaughing
Barrel,ed. Dundes, 394.
47. W. D. Siegfried,A Winterin theSouthand WorkamongtheFreedmen
(Newark, N.J.:JenningsBros.,1870), 17. For the fusionof AfricanAmerican
folkbeliefsand Catholicismin an early-twentieth-century
black community
along the Mississippi River,see Ruth Bass, "Ole Miss'," Folk-Say:A Regional
Miscellany3 (1931): 48-69.
48. JacobStroyer,My Lifein theSouth,3d ed. (Salem, Mass.: Salem
ObserverBook and JobPrinting,1885),57-58.
49. Perdue,Barden,and Phillips,Weevilsin theWheat,11.
50. Sarah Handy, "Negro Superstitions,"Lippincott's
MonthlyMagazine48 (1891): 738.
51. Zora Neale Hurston,"Hoodoo in America,"JournalofAmerican
Folklore
45 (October-December1931): 414.
52. Hyatt,Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft-Rootwork,
2:1758; see also
Hans Baer,TheBlackSpiritualMovement:
A ReligiousResponsetoRacism(Knoxville: UniversityofTennesseePress,1984),130.
53. Threetwentieth-century
sourcesmentioning"letters"or "books"
to
the
point
possibilitythattherewas a magical significanceattachedto such
articles.The concept of the mysticalpower of the word that is written,so
prominentin Islamic lore, was possibly fused with the Africannotion of
charms,which were adopted by black Americansas objects
spirit-embedding
in theNineteenth
Century
245
of power. For examples,see Zora Neale Hurston,TheSanctified
Church,17-18;
Norman Whitten, "Contemporary Patterns of Malign Occultism among
Negroes in NorthCarolina," JournalofAmericanFolklore75 (October-December 1962): 315; and Powdermaker,AfterFreedom,
294-95.
54. See Mrs. A. Right,informant,
Atlanta,Georgia,Newbell Puckett
Papers,box 8, fileno. 2, Cleveland Public Library.
55. Charles Chesnutt,"Superstitionand Folkloreof theSouth,"ModernCulture13 (1901),repr.in MotherWitfromtheLaughingBarrel,ed. Dundes,
374.
56. Rawick,TheAmericanSlave,vol. 4, GeorgiaNarratives,
17.
57. M. S. Lea, "Two-Head Doctors," AmericanMercury(October
1929): 237.
58. Botkin,Lay My BurdenDown, 34; see also Rawick, TheAmerican
Slave,supplement,series2, vol. 7, TexasNarratives,
pt. 6, 2782.
59. See, forexample, the commentsof Ellen Dorsey regardingthe
devil and Conjurein theGeorgia Writers'Project,Drumsand Shadows:Survival
StudiesamongtheGeorgiaCoastalNegroes(Athens:UniversityofGeorgia Press,
1940),27; and Handy,"Negro Superstitions,"736.
60. Rossa Belle Cooley, The Homes of the Freed (New York: New
Republic,1926),41.
61. See Benjamin A. Botkin,A Treasuryof SouthernFolklore:Stories,
and Folkwaysof thePeopleof theSouth(New York: Crown
Ballads,Traditions,
Publishers,1949),639.
62. Ruth Bass, "Fern Seed-For Peace," in Folk-Say:A RegionalMiscellany2 (1930): 56; see also Puckett,FolkBeliefsoftheSouthernNegro,557-59.
For the use of plants in folkhealing in contemporaryblack Christiantraditions,see Karen Baldwin, "Mrs. Emma Dupree: That LittleMedicine Thing,"
NorthCarolinaFolklore
32, no. 2 (Fall-Winter1984): 50-53.
Journal
63. Botkin,Lay My BurdenDown,37; Lawrence Levine, BlackCulture
and Black Consciousness:Afro-American
Folk ThoughtfromSlaveryto Freedom
(New York:OxfordUniversityPress,1977),57.
64. See Puckett,Folk Beliefsof the SouthernNegro,520-70; Georgia
Writers'Project,Drumsand Shadows,1-2;Sobel, Trabelin'
On, 99-135;Raboteau,
SlaveReligion,250; and Levine,BlackCultureand BlackConsciousness,
37.
65. Ronnie Clayton,Motherwit:Ex-Slave Narrativesof the Louisiana
Writers'Project(New York: P. Lang, 1990), 180; Rawick, The AmericanSlave,
vol. 3, SouthCarolinaNarratives,
pt. 4, 252; Georgia Writers'Project,Drumsand
Shadows,25. See also Levine,BlackCultureand BlackConsciousness,
56;
246
66. AlbertRaboteau, "The Afro-American
Traditions,"in Caringand
ed. Ronald
Traditions,
Religious
Curing:Healthand Medicinein theWestern
Numbers (New York:Macmillan,1986),551.

Conjure And Christianity In The 19th Century: Religious

Transcription

Similar documents

Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative

The Faces of the Tri-Hexaflexagon

Punk "Noir": Anarchy in Two Idioms

Evil and Omnipotence

Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political

The Phylogenetic Study of Adaptive Zones: Has Phytophagy

"The Piano Has Been Drinking": On the Art of

In the House of the Child

Mark Twain the Tourist: The Form of The Innocents Abroad

The Canon of Polykleitos - Department of Art History