A true story from 1909, published in The Sunday Morning Star, Wilmington, Delaware

Wesley Shepardson, aged 49, and his friend, a youth called Norman West, went to the cops to make a complaint. Wesley told them he was being “hoodooed” by a conjure woman from the east side of the city, who apparently was trying to

Continue reading Conjure: Panicked by hoodoo woman’s fearsome spells…

During the 1930 many black American ex-slaves were interviewed for the U.S. government’s Virginia Negro Studies Project. Some outlined “conjure” recipes, while others noted how white slave owners aggressively outlawed hoodoo and African folk traditions.

Here’s some quotes from the study:

May Satterfield of Lynchburg gave a recipe for making a charm to bring good luck:

“…Git some

Continue reading Conjuring on the Plantations

Now and then, the old hoodoo doctors of the American South used to say to clients, “You been poisoned nearly to death.” They didn’t mean the person had swallowed arsenic or some other noxious substance. They meant a hex or curse had been laid on them.

The rootworker would go on to explain that an amulet

Continue reading “You been poisoned nearly to death…”

“…The practice of conjuration was carried out by quite a few. The Negroes who were from the Indies and other islands were greatly responsible for these teachings. The brewin’ of certain concoctions composed of roots, herbs and scraps of cloth with certain fowl feathers was believed to work charms or spells on the persons desired…