1.1 Hoodoo Defined

Hoodoo has been considered in the realm of African folk magic and conjure systems and its practitioners are known as conjurers, root doctors, or root men/root women. Hoodoo is not a religion, which is its most distinctive difference from other African magical practices and often a source of confusion for the public, which tends to conflate hoodoo with Vodun or other specific African religions. Rather, hoodoo is an unstructured collection of ritual practices, prayers, magic spells, and objects that, when combined in a certain way by those knowledgeable, are believed to bring about results not obtained through human action alone.

Conjurers/root doctors are individuals that are believed to have special power to call upon Nature, ancestral spirits, and other entities to harness supernatural power to their own purpose. Historically, conjurers could be men or women but, according to some Hume Plantation descendant families’ memories, hoodoo practitioners there in the 19th century tended to be men. This was due not to a patriarchal social structure but to circumstance.

Conjuring is typically passed down within a family maintaining generational and traditional hoodoo knowledge, although it can also be learned (Creel Reference Creel1988: 52–57). One can be born with power and learn the skills to harness that power from established conjurers. Individuals can experience “a calling” to become a root doctor based upon visions and other clues to one’s destiny (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 23).

Hoodoo consists of a variety of magic spells with a range of positive to negative objectives from cultivating good luck to benefiting the individual or household, providing curative treatments for illnesses, divining the future, and offering protection. On the darker end of the spectrum there are curses and vengeance spells to do harm or to kill. Magic spells require specific objects for specific tasks to appeal to the correct supernatural entities and include but are not limited to: herbs, bodily fluids and other biological material, grave dirt (aka goopher dirt), photographs, written phrases or symbols, and more that are collected together (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 48; Long Reference Long2001: 3–8). These are administered in a variety of ways in combination with recitation of magic utterances to bring about the desired outcome.

Too often, people outside of these cultural communities confuse or conflate hoodoo with voodoo, or Vodun, which is a religion most associated with Haiti and New Orleans where many Haitians relocated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 4). One high-profile individual was 19th-century Madame Laveau of New Orleans, who drew her knowledge from African, Native American, and European religions and who was frequently described as a voodoo queen, sorceresses, or conjurer. Madame Laveau is frequently the only model of reference because of her historical status among the general public; most people’s understanding of African folk magic is based on what they think she stood for and practiced (Long Reference Long2001: 45–52). Santería (Cuba) and Candomblé (Brazil) are two more examples of African religions that have been highly exploited in the commercial and entertainment industry for their name recognition. There are many more that have been appropriated similarly but they are too numerous to mention here. This Element acknowledges the influences that many African religions and traditions have had on the public perception, often with misinformation, but they will not be covered in this Element because they are not relevant to the practices on the Hume Plantation.

Most African religions observe a hierarchy and formality with designated leaders that control rituals and services. To put it simply, hoodoo is differentiated from any single, specific religion and can be likened to the difference between a practicing psychic/healer (individual) using occult and mystical knowledge versus a religion’s formally recognized leader (priest/reverend/pastor/imam/rabbi) performing a ritual that is structured by the religion that it directly represents.

Lest this leave the reader with the view that hoodoo conjurers were outliers viewed as less legitimate within the African community – African religions do not make distinctions between the power of the individual as illegitimate versus the power of a religion as the only legitimate expression. Comparatively, in a Christian society a prayer or exhortation is viewed as legitimate because it asks for or urges an intervention from a recognized supernatural entity, whether deity, saint, and so on, but spells or incantations are illegitimate because they are expressions of magic and an attempt to compel action from a supernatural entity. Invoking energies in this way is not hierarchically recognized as legitimate. In essence, it implies that the individual possesses more power than they have a right to wield and likely came into that power through nefarious means.

From an anthropological view, however, one person’s prayer/exhortation is another person’s spell/incantation; it depends upon how you wish to frame it linguistically and provide a label for which it may be accepted or denied. Another example would be the concept of inviting a spirit to possess the body, however transiently, by an individual who wishes the blessing of the spirit called upon – yet it is distinguished by some as less legitimate than inviting a “holy ghost” to reside within. Either can be viewed negatively or positively, depending upon one’s perspective. Suffice it to say, Indigenous African peoples from the West and Central regions saw religion, magic, and spirituality as a combined whole of their Kongo cultural traditions (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 38; Creel Reference Creel1988: 19–21). Unfortunately, a pejorative use of the term “magic” is often applied to religions and practices that are not recognized or are feared by the dominant group in a society regardless of its intent. Its inherent Otherness robs it of legitimacy from the dominant society’s view. For this reason, hoodoo and its other iterations have often been misunderstood and all expressions of it labeled “black magic.”

It is important to remember that this Element will focus only on hoodoo practices on the Hume Plantation and the enslaved groups particular to the Lowcountry. For comparative purposes, some examples from other plantations will help to demonstrate the similarities where they are relevant.

In addition, it is not always possible to identify specific purposes for ritual/magic deposits archaeologically. There may be patterns from which one can infer intent, based upon known use of materials and their treatment, but this is limited to a general understanding of “white magic” versus “black magic.”

1.2 Cosmology and African Religions

African religions are not all the same, just as Native American belief systems are not all the same and vary from tribe to tribe and region to region. However, there are some basic concepts and frameworks that can be applied without compromising the uniqueness of each or reducing their spiritualities into a one-size-fits-all. It is important to understand this general framework in order to place hoodoo magic in its proper context.

A supreme deity is normally at the center of most African belief systems. Most often this deity is neither good nor evil and is frequently removed from the world of human beings and their daily triumphs and travails (Long Reference Long2001: 3–5). For this reason, there are lesser supernaturals to whom human beings can turn for assistance who may act to alter outcomes in one’s life. The concept of intermediaries is particularly expressed in Fon and Yoruba belief systems (West and Central Africa) from where many of the enslaved in the Lowcountry originated. Successful persuasion of supernaturals and ancestral spirits to act resides in sufficient demonstrations of honor and reverence paid to them, and special knowledge of magic ingredients and use of one’s power to attract and invoke them (Creel Reference Creel1988; Long 2003: 3–5). Spirits and other supernatural entities may be benevolent or maleficent depending upon the nature of the request and their own personalities (Pinckney Reference Pinckney2003: 65–79).

Within this general cosmological framework, items labeled as inanimate objects by other belief systems do not exist in an African perspective. Spirits and other supernatural entities can inhabit landscapes and their features such as rocks, plants, trees, and rivers, as well as forces of nature: storms, wind, lightning, and so on (Long 2003: 5). Animals and other nonhuman organisms may also harbor a supernatural entity.

1.3 Ritual and Magic Defined

The objects and deposits identified as ritualistic through the Hume Plantation Stave Street Project were designated so because they followed a specific and identifiable pattern of material use and placement. Ritual deposits are differentiated from cast-off activity in that they are purposeful rather than arbitrary and are placed in defined areas known for their magical or spiritual significance, rather than being left in unspecified general areas in and around the house that have no symbolic meaning. Objects found in trash pits or in general areas without the magical symbolism or context are interpreted as not part of the ritual pattern, and are simply cast-offs or misplaced items. Following Catherine Bell’s (Reference Bell2009: 69–71) theories of ritual behavior, ritual deposits in the Hume Plantation slave quarter communicate more than passive requests; they are expressive acts of defiance and strategy. Interpreted in the context of enslavement, the actions of the enslaved can be seen both as formal and repetitive, interpreted as “passive,” and as ritualized to invoke a specific outcome, which is interpreted as “active.”

Bell discusses several modes of instrumental acts and clarifies that the combination of expressive and instrumental ritual can also constitute a definition of magic. Ritual communication to engage with ancestors, deities, and spirits to bring about a desired effect is taken together with unique acts designed to target individuals; they are considered together in this Element.

Archaeologically, a pattern emerged among the enslavement cabins that further reinforced and supported interpretations that certain objects constituted ritual activity. These patterns included but were not limited to: (1) deposits buried beneath the cabin floor but in line with the structural framework of the cabin wall(s); (2) deposits that were consistently placed equidistantly (approximately one meter or three feet apart) and contained similar and/or specific content materials; (3) deposits, varied in content, that tended to be concentrated around the hearth or chimney area on the south side of the cabin; (4) certain deposits concentrated in the corners of a structure’s foundation that suggest a conscious directionality connected to spiritual or cosmological forces; (5) deposits placed in areas considered “liminal” spaces – such as entrances or exits, doorway thresholds (internal or external), and fence lines or gates.

Besides the initial twenty-one ritual deposits recognized in the initial excavations of the slave street that will be discussed in the following sections, there were special finds that were designated as anomalies due to the fact that there was no ready explanation for them yet they also appeared not to be randomly cast-off objects. The nature of these anomalous objects (for instance, their being made of an exotic material, something that would have been hard to acquire, make, or find, that had known associated symbolism), even though they were not placed in with other objects of similar symbolic or magical use, indicates that possibly the magical context has been lost or is unconfirmed in the excavation. Because there was no identifiable pattern due to their limited occurrences, they are noted separately from the twenty-one identified hoodoo deposits. However, noting them for future reference is important in the event that more is discovered. Ritual deposits appeared to suggest an ordering of the environment in such a way as to ensure that power was invoked for purpose; Bell would call this “instrumental” in combination with “expressive” communication with the supernatural world (Bell Reference Bell2009: 79). These deposits were then compared to similar finds noted at other African American communities or enslavement sites for insight and possible ritual. Stand-alone ritual deposits are noted within the section categories where they are relevant.

1.4 Historical Use and Preservation of the Site

In historical archaeology, it is important to know the level of disturbance the site being studied may have undergone before it was excavated to know in what ways and how much, if at all, it has been compromised by human, animal, and environmental activities over time. Disturbances of the archaeological record and its evidence can affect the interpretation and understanding of the site. For this reason, a brief overview of the plantation era into the 20th century is included.

The Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center is a refuge that includes Cat, North, and South Islands and is located approximately 10 miles south of Georgetown, South Carolina. Today it serves as a conservation and sanctuary property for wildlife, birds (resident and special migratory), botanical species, estuary ecosystems, and ocean life off its coastal waters. Further, its status as a wildlife refuge helps to preserve historical/archaeological sites on its islands as well. The Hume Plantation on Cat Island is not to be confused with the Cat Island of Beaufort County, which is located between Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia.

Cat Island is frequently the focus of several research projects from various institutions and scholars who study coastal flora and fauna. Until 2011, the only archaeological activity on Cat Island was an isolated surface survey conducted in 1993 as part of South Carolina’s Heritage and Historic Preservation effort (Judge and Judge Reference Judge, Judge, Kang and Pedersen1994). In 2011 the first archaeological exploration began with surface survey, test pits, and subsurface excavations conducted by the author and her students and volunteers in 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2017, culminating in a study season in 2018 and compilation of the data presented in this Element.

Cat, North, and South Islands have benefited from limited access since 1976 upon becoming a designated wildlife refuge. Prior to this designation, these lands were privately owned from the mid 18th century to contemporary times and saw minimal development beyond the plantations that were in operation during the historical period of the mid 18th to the mid 19th centuries. Limited access and growth are beneficial to historical archaeology studies. It is rare to find undisturbed and preserved archaeological evidence of ritual behaviors that has survived for over 150 years.

Unlike many historical sites that suffer from increasing modernization such as expanding agriculture and construction projects to keep up with population growth, Cat and South Islands have had limited population and low numbers have been consistent over time. North Island is perhaps least populated, is more isolated, and functions as a barrier island across the Winyah Bay. North Island is first to engage with destructive weather fronts coming in from the northeastern Atlantic and offers some protection to Cat and South Islands. Besides being a weather barrier, North Island has a topography that is also resistant to habitation. Its coastal edges are made up of wide sandy dunes punctuated throughout with wet marshy swales and further inland are live oak, cedar, and palmetto trees.Footnote ¹

Because of its less hospitable environment and weather conditions, North Island is not suitable for general habitation. It is better suited to other purposes, such as a lighthouse, one of which was constructed there in 1799 and referred to as the Georgetown Lighthouse (Zepke Reference Zepke1998). It was rebuilt twice during the 19th century: once because of damage from brutal storms that struck the barrier hardest and a second time for repair due to damage incurred during a Civil War–era military engagement. The lighthouse functioned as a lookout tower for the Confederate army until its capture by the Union army in 1862 (Zepke Reference Zepke1998).

To accommodate the rice plantations, canals were dredged on Cat and South Islands mainly for irrigation and drainage. The Belle Isle Rice Mill, also known as (aka) Black Out Plantation, was created to process the rice generated by the plantations (Lachicotte Reference Lachicotte1993: 161–166). In addition, there were two Confederate forts built one year after South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860. In 1861 one fort was placed on Cat Island and the other on South Island. These were strategically located to oversee and provide fortification over Winyah Bay, but they were short-lived and abandoned the following year because the troops were sorely needed elsewhere (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010: 111).

Naval stores were harvested mainly for British interests in the 18th century, but this ended with the Revolutionary War. The islands have a healthy forest of long-leaf pine that provided a source for tar and resin rendering and turpentine, which was necessary once more in the 19th century for shipbuilding, but this was again a short-term endeavor.

Throughout this period, Cat and South Islands were home to descendant communities. While a few stayed on after emancipation in 1865, others left the islands to reside in nearby Georgetown or farther south along what is now Interstate 17, the highway corridor to Charleston (today they are known as the Gullah Community), or they ventured inland to other unincorporated, largely African American communities.

The Hume Plantation, the Daisy Bank Plantation, the Chat/Cat Island Plantation (Smith family), White Marsh aka the Maxwell Plantation (Maxwell family), the Fairfield Plantation, and Belle Isle aka Black Out Plantation (Lowndes family) thrived on Cat and South Islands from the antebellum through the Civil War era as successful rice plantations (Lachicotte Reference Lachicotte1993; Land Reference Land1969; Rogers Reference Rogers2002).

Cat Island plantations’ former rice fields slowly fell into disuse as the grounds were no longer cultivated. In the aftermath of the Civil War, large tracts of plantation grounds including the rice fields were slowly reclaimed by the environment. The rice industry could not be maintained without sufficient funds. Former rice plantations could not compete with rice industry competitors in other states and the economy collapsed. Competitors in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and California had the advantage of new technology and machinery not available in the aftermath of the Civil War South (Sea Grant Consortium 2014).

Descendant African American populations that stayed on Cat Island began an unincorporated town in the 1920s known as the Maxwell Community (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010). Traffic was limited and there was no need for large construction projects. Much of the bull pine found around the Hume Plantation slave street today is considered relatively new growth – having sprung up in the last sixty to eighty years. Oak and hickory trees, dwarf spike rush, marsh grass, cattails, widgeon grass, and kudzu provide thick ground cover. Some root disturbances of shrubbery and ground cover were ameliorated when the Yawkey Wildlife Center periodically practiced forest management and burned or cut shrubbery and accumulated duff to prevent risk of insect or vegetation disease. This was particularly true of the Hume Plantation slave street, which was preserved by keeping the underbrush and tree growth controlled on the east side where the majority of excavations were done.

Small personal garden plots were common among descendants much the same as they were for their ancestors. Some former slaves continued to inhabit the cabins, but their numbers diminished as lumber and other reusable resources from the cabins were repurposed elsewhere. As a result, ground disturbance from plow and/or other machinery was minimal to nonexistent in many places.

The St. James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church was constructed in 1928 to serve the small community until 1979 (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010). A small fishing village was born on the South Island shoreline in the late 19th century, but did not survive coastal storms and erosion. The population continued to diminish between 1865 and 1976, which promoted near-pristine conditions for preserving the ruins of former plantation grounds even though many of the above-ground structures were deconstructed and materials were repurposed elsewhere. What was left fell into ruin or succumbed to coastal storms.

1.5 Environmental Factors

We can say that there was limited human disturbance of the pre- and historical eras, and that helped preserve archaeological sites and artifacts on the Hume Plantation. However, it is worth noting that there were some environmental conditions that impacted the types of artifact that survived in the archaeological record. The Lowcountry can suffer from seasonal storms, hurricanes, and flooding. Undergrowth is generally heavy in areas where controlled burning and other maintenance procedures are not applied. Topsoil and subsurface excavation reflect sporadic disruption at depths of 5 to 10 centimeters (approximately 4 inches) when topsoil has been moved due to hurricane and storm surge. This is generally identified within Level 1 – considered within a 20th-century time frame – and is of limited scope.

On the three islands, the forest and heavy undergrowth that are present limit movement of soils. It is important to remember that the levels assigned to the stratigraphy are an artificial designation and there is overlap between Level 1 and Level 2, for instance. For clarity, objects found in the mid to lower range of Level 1 or the upper range of Level 2 may be within the same time frame. Thus, some flexibility should be applied to interpretive analysis when within a few centimeters or inches above or below the mid range.

There were no agricultural plow zones and no construction damage in the Hume Plantation slave street area, as these spaces were intermittently inhabited as residences in the post–Civil War era but slowly abandoned over the intervening years between 1865 and 1900. Flooding action was considered a possibility for topsoil disturbances where applicable, such that artifacts nearer the surface (20th-century level) may have been displaced. Ocean and/or canal water that overflowed inland could have possibly introduced artifacts from other contexts and deposited them in unrelated, noncontextual places. These factors were taken into consideration in the process of interpreting and understanding the associations within assemblages of Level 1 finds.

Bioturbation and artifact displacement due to root growth and animal tunneling was also considered for all excavated levels. Artifacts found embedded near root systems were noted, along with any observable small rodent activity. Despite this, much of the artifact deposits designated as evidence of ritual were found to be in patterned, purposeful placements that counter arguments of random, coincidental, or unrelated finds and the majority were found along the somewhat protected structural remnants of the foundations of the slave cabins, sheds, and fence lines. Deposits of a unique nature found in backyards, unassociated with any man-made structure, were also noted. In those cases, root growth disturbance was noted where it could be seen. Most of these stand-alone deposits were excavated in Levels 2, 3, or 4 – which placed them deeper than surface and Level 1 disturbances would have reached. Much of the new tree growth root systems and animal tunneling was recent, meaning that it was not significant enough to disturb object placements in lower levels.

The soil matrix in this area is a combination of silty/clay loam. The topsoil along the Hume Plantation slave street proved to be rich and fertile, going down to a depth of approximately 20–30 centimeters (8–12 inches) in most areas and in some places 40 centimeters (approximately 16 inches), good for backyard gardens that most of the enslaved utilized around their cabins. Areas near the canals and irrigation ditches do not tend to drain well and shovel tests, depending upon proximity to them, could produce slow seepage or moist soils.

The acidity/alkalinity of the soils on the slave street was tested and results showed a pH of 3–4 on a scale of 0–14, where 7 is considered neutral. Readings below 7 are acidic (and increasingly so as it nears 1); soils at 7pH or above are more alkaline, which is more conducive to preservation. The Hume Plantation slave street soils would be considered very acidic. High pH levels (acidity) accelerate the decomposition process of bone and organic material. There are a few exceptions that would survive for an extended length of time (i.e., teeth, burned carbon, hickory nut shells, marine shells). Thus, certain artifact types could be over- or underrepresented, leading to a skewed understanding of certain practices, and this, too, was taken into consideration during interpretation.

The topography along the Lowcountry of Georgetown County is mainly flat with a high percentage of new growth forests (120 years or less) of bull pine. There are a few surviving “old growth” mature hardwood trees of the oak variety, growing mainly in the area where the plantation Main House had been. Live oaks were noted on the Hume Plantation from early 20th-century photographs with some still standing today that are clearly over 150 years old; these were present in the antebellum through the Civil War and post–Civil War eras and serve as landmarks to aid in reconstructing the location of the slave street structures and proximity to the Main House when the surface survey was done.

1.6 The Yawkey Wildlife Center Legacy 1911–1977

Tom Yawkey originally inherited South Island in 1919 from his uncle and adoptive father, William Yawkey. William owned South Island from 1911 until he died on March 5, 1919 in the influenza pandemic that claimed the lives of approximately 675,000 people in the United States over a two-year period, according to the National Archives. Over the course of several years after coming into his inheritance of South Island, Tom Yawkey also acquired more oceanfront property and Cat and North Islands for 31 square miles of wetlands and forests (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010). These were bordered on the south by the Santee River. Cat Island has a unique fresh to saltwater estuary and thus unique aquatic life, reptiles, and migratory birds.

The three islands were used throughout the early to mid 20th century by the Yawkeys as a private, limited access getaway for elites like themselves; they hosted a members-only hunting club. Upper-social-class personalities were invited to visit Cat Island to stay in a lodge and experience the wilderness, engage in hunting and fishing activities, and enjoy seclusion away from the hubbub of city life and the society pages. Willliam and Tom Yawkey’s social circle included baseball players and politicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as President Grover Cleveland and Ty Cobb of the Boston Red Sox. The Yawkey family was known as “baseball royalty,” with William owning the Detroit Tigers from 1903 to 1919 (until his death) and then Tom Yawkey as owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 to 1976 (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010).

The Yawkey Wildlife Center was set up in 1976–1977 when the owner, Tom Yawkey, willed the islands to the state of South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department. The Center was to be maintained by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), and the Yawkey Foundation (a nonprofit, charitable organization) was to oversee its funding.

The Yawkey Wildlife Center has appointed personnel for limited times during the weekdays since the 1970s to provide a ferry service. A floating hydraulic swing bridge was installed in 2015 to make access easier; it eliminated the need for the ferry except under special circumstances. The swing bridge has limited operation times, as did the ferry, and was installed because it became necessary to move heavier machinery and the vehicles of the island residents, mainly employees of the SCDNR, and to transport supplies such as fuel and other essentials.

Today, the Center’s islands continue to enforce limited access and most who visit must do so by prearranged day tours and guided field trips. The Estherville-Minim Creek Canal carved out what became Cat Island by artificially separating it from the mainland of Georgetown County. The Estherville-Minim Creek Canal was constructed at the end of the 19th century (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010; see also the SCDNR websiteFootnote ²). The Intracoastal Waterway was added in the early to mid 20th century and together these canals act as a barrier restricting land passage onto the Center’s islands. For over a century, access has been possible only by a brief manned-ferry-boat ride.

2.1 Native American Seasonal Use of Cat Island

There is evidence of prehistoric Native campsites on Cat Island located in what was later to become the Hume Plantation slave quarter. Native pottery, charcoal and carbon residue from firepits, and lithic debitage in those levels and shovel tests indicate a presence of frequent use, though not a sedentary village occupation.

Early subsurface excavation on Cat Island indicates that prehistoric Natives were utilizing the area regularly. There was no evidence of long-term habitation but there was evidence of transitory (hunting) campsites (Swanton Reference Swanton1946). Evidence of transitory campsites included limited lithics debitage and ceramic pieces that had been fire-hardened with local sand temper for quick results and thus did not reflect a great deal of time and effort having been taken in their production. Quickly produced ceramics are those that are typically exposed to shorter firing times and at lower or inconsistent temperatures, often in a hearth or open fire pit. The result is ceramic material that has not had enough time and high heat exposure to completely bond the materials in comparison to those that are kiln fired. The ceramic is characterized by a hardened but coarse texture and has a shorter life-use.

Deptford ceramics (800 BCE–700 CE) from the Middle Woodland period in South Carolina is present at the lowest levels beneath the Hume Plantation slave street centuries later (see Table 2). Corded/fabric-stamped Deptford and Yadkin ceramics (1000 BCE–200 CE) tempered with crushed micacious bits or quartz (Trinkley Reference Trinkley1990) have been found. Some prehistoric pottery and lithic pieces were repurposed in ritual deposits on the slave street.

Based on ceramic and temporary encampment evidence, Native groups had been utilizing the coastal resources of Cat and South Islands regularly from 1200 BCE up to the early 16th century with the arrival of the Spanish. They took advantage of natural resources when available, harvesting wild plants and hunting in seasonal rounds that followed an established yearly route from the uplands to the lowlands and back.

Small groups stayed for limited periods of time along the Lowcountry coast. It is likely that they chose not to establish long-term communities in close proximity to the coast due to environmental conditions: hurricane/storm season, tornadoes, high temperature and humidity, and concentrations of insects, snakes, and other troublesome conditions that plagued the region during the summer months (Gallay Reference Gallay2002). This prompted most Natives to travel inland for part of the year.

Alternatively, most coastal resource harvesting, that is, hunting, fishing, digging shellfish, and plant-gathering activities along the Lowcountry coastline, was done in the fall through the winter months. Ironically, this is the same season in which the 16th-century Spanish colonists of San Miguel de Guadalupe were struggling to survive due to ignorance of the abundance around them, and how and where to reap those resources. Deer hunting season is best in the late fall, before the deer go into rut in late October and early November; marine/shellfish harvesting reaches its most productive period from the late fall to early spring; and wild fruits such as apples, berries, and asparagus common to the area and many medicinal and cooking herbs such as sage, mint, basil, savory, and parsley are ready in the late autumn, winter, and/or early spring months (McEwan Reference McEwan2000; Mitchell Reference Mitchell1999).

2.2 Native American Symbolism and Medicinal Knowledge

What we know of pre–European contact Native American ritual practices in the southeastern United States is limited and mainly learned through later accounts by missionaries (Gallay Reference Gallay2002; McEwan Reference McEwan2000). There are few accounts detailing the cosmology and ritual practices of South Carolina Natives in the Colonial period. Most early European–Native interactions were fueled by enslavement practices or attempts at conversion to Christianity rather than ethnographic preservation of traditional knowledge (Gallay Reference Gallay2002:105, 120–122, 237–238).

The Southeastern and Lowcountry tribes underwent significant changes in their culture and ideologies over the 200+ years of European contact. It cannot be overstated that loss of tribal knowledge and traditions, and loss of population due to disease, war, and absorption into other tribal entities, redefined identity such that it would be completely different within two generations of pre– to post–European contact. Today, Native efforts to recapture traditional knowledge are ongoing, but, unfortunately, much of it has been influenced by contemporary sources rather than being preserved ancestral knowledge, due to the circumstances of population loss (Lerch Reference Lerch2004; Rogers Reference Rogers2002).

What we know of Southeastern Native culture in mixed ethnic ritual display is largely linked to medicinal/curative and nutritional knowledge of plants in the Lowcountry. Herbal expertise was shared with enslaved African peoples who combined that knowledge with their own as they sought to find plants that offered the same benefits as those known from their African homelands (Mitchell Reference Mitchell1999; Russell Reference Russell1997; Savit Reference Savit1978).

The Native perspectives on the environment, the seasons, the four sacred cardinal directions from which power over different aspects of life radiated, the ancestors, and the symbols of power share similarities in a general sense with the perspectives of many other Native Americans in the United States. Yet, specific details and practices between tribes differ.

In comparing the archaeological record of the Hume Plantation slave street to other archaeological contexts in the South, it is important to remember that the fundamental purposes for communicating with the spirit world were about curatives, protection, and divination. Black magic was also practiced to bring about harm or death, but at the Hume Plantation there is only one magic deposit that suggests ill intent; the second is indeterminate.

Ritual deposits found on the Hume Plantation suggest a synthesis of Native spirituality that overlapped and shared commonality with African concepts about ancestors, protection, and curatives. Herbal knowledge about curatives was undoubtedly the main point of shared knowledge between the African and the Native communities (Mitchell Reference Mitchell1999). We can infer that there was perceived to be certain symbolism and cosmological value in specific Native-made objects that were included in ritual or magical deposits by the enslaved only through their association with other items in the magical deposits. Most of the decorative elements of the prehistoric ceramics are cord impressed lines or basic stamped geometric shapes made when the clay was wet. Pictorial imagery of animals and other objects was not part of the ceramic style, thus we cannot assign specific symbolic meaning incorporated from Native ideologies associated with animals, plants, and so on. Therefore, the symbolism may be more aligned with the Native American and/or prehistoric origins themselves, as perhaps an acknowledgment of ancestors and the past, or the natural earthern materials from which items were made, or possibly the color – although, because of the clay, that was largely a ubiquitous red-brown. That said, pieces of European and imported ceramics with bold painted colors were favored for specific color in African cosmological symbolism. Projectile points (also known as arrowheads) were found in magical deposits in two places on the slave street. The repurposing of these may be connected to the symbolism of items as weapons, as sharp edges, or as tools of resistance or protection. In any event, the repurposing of Native American-made objects where they were found in the enslaved’s ritual and magical deposits demonstrates that the Native American component was considered sufficiently valid in some symbolic way to be incorporated into the deposits.

3.1 The 21 Hoodoo Deposits

There were twenty-one initially recognizable hoodoo deposits discovered on the Hume Plantation slave street that were placed in specific locations. Most were buried beneath slave cabin floors and associated structures such as sheds, fencing, backyard gardens, and other targeted areas. The majority of the hoodoo deposits appeared to be for protection, for success, or for curative purposes. In one case the deposit seemed to indicate a spell with intent to harm (see Table 3).

Excavated artifacts suggest that some Western ideas about social class had also been adopted among the enslaved over time insomuch as class ideology and social hierarchy were imposed for many years. The enslaved had to learn how to navigate the system that dominated their lives, which then translated into expressions of social division among themselves that continued after emancipation. We can infer this from the different excavation levels that show a continued disparity in the quality of ceramics, personal adornment, and other items that are found in the upper end of the slave street (nearest what was the Main House) compared to those found on the lower end. For those who continued to live temporarily in the slave cabins farther down the slave street, colonoware, a rough pottery made by the enslaved, still characterized much of their household wares and there were fewer personal items. Given that after emancipation many freed individuals had nowhere to go and stayed on, at least for a time, the items of those living on the upper end of the slave street suggest continued differentiation.

This is not to suggest that the notion of social hierarchy was unknown among the enslaved before their enslavement. Social status, wealth, and political power were part of the social fabric among West African tribes before enslavement. Success and symbols of wealth or power were expressed with standardization of value imbued to cowry shells. The cowries were eventually replaced by imported beads when cowries became too attainable for everyone. The scarcity of the manufactured beads raised their monetary and symbolic value and they eventually replaced the cowry shell (Ogundiran Reference Ogundiran2002: 448).

Certain artifacts and repurposed European materials in ritual/magic deposits indicate controlled access to certain wares during enslavement. Inhabitants of the cabins closest to the Main House were afforded more hand-me-downs from the plantation owner and other small privileges. At the Hume Plantation it is likely that a conjurer resided in the upper half of the slave street, based upon the collection of special deposits and repurposed upper-class materials found around Cabins 2 and 3. Surprisingly, very little was found around Cabin 1 and it appeared almost vacant or perhaps had one occupant, judging by the minimal amount of refuse in the trash pit and other signs of active inhabitation.

Evidence suggests that, alternately, enslaved families that lived farthest away from the Main House were also those with the least social status and whose value was their field labor. There is not much to suggest any meaningful interaction with the Main House residents. While colonoware was found throughout the slave street, the highest concentrations of it were found in the lower half, namely Cabins 5, 6, and 7 (Cabin 8 had limited excavation and produced very little).

The four lower cabins revealed the fewest and most utilitarian household items compared to the upper half of the slave street. While there was some evidence of ritual deposits found among those four cabins, these were limited in scope and purpose – and appear to have been primarily for protective purposes or to benefit an individual or the family. Other deposits in the backyard or garden areas suggest requests for growth, success, or to keep boundaries from being breached by negative forces, including interference from neighbors. The interpretations are general and based upon the placement and content of oyster shells, nails (for power to invoke), and colors in white and blue that symbolize water and deities and/or ancestors, and can be inferred to bring positive aspects. More about color symbolism and associations with water elements will be discussed in Section 3.4.

Hoodoo deposits were mainly conglomerated around the upper four cabins of the slave street on the east side. Unfortunately, three additional slave cabins along the west side – Cabins 9, 10, and 11 – were located in front of the cattle pen and livestock stalls and were not excavated within the time frame of the Hume Plantation Project. This was mainly due to thick tree growth, as opposed to the east side which had limited tree growth and limited time and funds to compensate for the additional labor needed to clear the area. Partial excavation was possible on a corner of the Overseer’s House on the west side: there was a slight clearing, which was enough to expose access to the northwest corner (see the Figure 3 plat map).

The Reconstruction phase of the post–Civil War era offered little to emancipated African Americans, though county records indicate that those who stayed on were laborers for plantations struggling to keep their rice production viable. Emancipated individuals who stayed continued to live in their previous slave cabins in subpar conditions, with no running water or electricity, and barely maintained a living wage to feed themselves. Medical needs were still largely addressed by conjurers, as they had been during the enslavement period. Common ailments claimed African American lives due to poor conditions and malnourishment. The post–Civil War years into the 20th century saw many of the emancipated fleeing to the American North or simply to other places to establish their own communities as free people. However, there were some who chose to stay on the plantation and continue as paid workers (although the pay was minimal or nonexistent in exchange for a place to live), having too few resources, poor health, older age, or family connections that discouraged them from moving on. Conjurers who stayed still had influence and filled a need among the black population, as they continued to address health problems that white doctors couldn’t or wouldn’t attend to. White resistance to the Reconstruction contributed to the ongoing instability of the South for both the black and the white populations. In this context, conjure magic remained an important part of African American lives as it filled a void in assuaging anxieties and fears experienced by the black population.

In 1850 approximately 500 enslaved Africans were residing on the plantations on Cat and South Islands; by 1860 in Georgetown County, South Carolina the enslaved African population was over 18,000 compared to the white population of approximately 3,000.Footnote ⁸ By the 1930s, during the Great Depression years, that number had dwindled to fewer than 100 African Americans in residence (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010: 16).

3.2 Objects of Power and Magic at the Hume Plantation

Spirit bundles and magic charms were by necessity small and could be worn without being visible to others. Objects of power for invoking spirits were easily gathered and/or repurposed, including cast-off European materials such as ceramics, metals, fabrics, and so on. Native American and African botanical and other organic resources such as roots and bodily fluids would not survive in the archaeological record, though prehistoric objects such as projectile points, lithics, and Native pottery and basic marine and freshwater resources were also accessible.

Many of these were considered mundane objects that were used or consumed in the daily lives of the enslaved. Occasionally, other specialty items were repurposed, such as beads, buttons, and other pieces of iron and metal. The following is an itemization and explanation of the symbolism of objects used in ritual/magic deposits on the Hume Plantation. In addition, there are some items that didn’t fall into clearly identified categories of magic practice because their composition was unique or the sample was too small to ascertain a pattern. They are noted because their composition may suggest other known symbolisms and their placement suggests special meaning and purposeful treatment that deserve attention.

Hoodoo magic was guided by color and material symbols that were aligned with the elements: water, air, fire, and earth. Cosmograms incorporated the four aspects of existence – birth, life, death, and rebirth – and a spell was ritually put into motion based upon one of the four prescribed times of day – sunrise, noon, sunset, or midnight – also known as the “four moments of the sun” (Long Reference Long2001: 55; Thompson Reference Thompson1981; Wassie Reference Wassie2021). Thus, placement beneath the floor near a hearth (fire source) or in a particular corner of a foundation or yard held meaning (see Table 4).

3.3 Colonoware

There was an abundance of colonoware excavated among the cabin sites in the Hume slave quarter. In all excavation seasons save for one that focused on other areas of the slave street, colonoware accounted for some of the most significant amounts of ceramic finds numbering into several hundred per season. Because the incidence rate of the material was comparatively higher than other ceramic types and seemed concentrated among the slave cabins, particularly those on the lower end of the slave street, it suggests that the colonoware was produced onsite on the Hume Plantation rather than traded from Natives, and that its purpose was mainly everyday use. Resource materials were abundant on Cat Island (clay, sand, temper materials).

Colonoware is an unglazed, handmade, and quickly produced earthenware pottery, usually made for utilitarian purposes and composed of local clays with sand or shell temper. As an unglazed ceramic it was easily replaced when cracked or broken; its use-life was typically short. Poor or inconsistent firing techniques indicate an open fire rather than firing in a kiln, and fracture patterns suggest quick processing. Enslaved crafters on the Hume Plantation would not have had access to a kiln and the resources necessary to properly maintain a fire in one. Instead, it is likely that they used their hearths or their yards’ open fire pits for this purpose. To be clear, colonoware was not a favored ceramic by the enslaved. Rather, it was produced out of necessity and easy access to local resources (Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992; Singleton Reference Singleton1999).

Many of the enslaved on the Hume Plantation were from West Africa and sought-after because of their familiarity with and knowledge of rice planting and harvesting. Their homeland was geographically similar to Cat Island, with its marshes and ocean to freshwater estuaries, sand, clay, silty soils, and an abundance of shells that could be used for temper. West and Central African ceramics are well decorated and identifiable – but colonoware remained undecorated for the majority of its utilitarian and short use-life. It is clear that this pottery type was unlikely to have been produced as a trade item by Natives who made finer wares for their aesthetic and trade appeal. The vast amount of colonoware at any enslaved site indicates that it was made locally and by the people that used it, to be thrown away and quickly replaced.

Colonoware sherds were found all around the Hume slave cabins, usually in middens (i.e., trash pits). Occasionally, colonoware sherds were found in the earthen floors of the cabins and regarded as cast-off debris. It is only when the sherds were found in an identifiable patterned deposit associated with other recognizable ritual materials that they were regarded as ritualized objects.

Some colonoware found in South Carolina was considered similar to the ceramics found in West and Central African archaeological sites because of its construction. This suggests that crafter(s) may have followed established knowledge of ceramic technology, which they brought with them to North America (Polhemus Reference Polhemus1977).

Early arguments that the enslaved traded their garden produce and other items at their disposal to acquire colono-Indian ware from friendly Native groups for everyday use have been challenged (Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992). This is because most trade-worthy ceramics produced by Natives were made of finer clays using mica, quartz, and finer tempers, and using different ceramic techniques. Native specialty wares were also traded to European settlers. Most whites, even among the lower socioeconomic group, would have been able to acquire Native-made ceramics. This is not to say that the enslaved did not occasionally trade for Native ceramics too; however, those trade items were more likely viewed as decorative and used on a more limited basis than for everyday cooking, food storage, or food preparation. Colonoware was a simple pottery and tended to be coarse and bulky.

Later, burnishing colonoware became a way to improve its aesthetics; it gave the impression of more sophistication by imitating finer European ceramics such as porcelain (Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992). Another argument for Hume Plantation colonoware originating from within the enslaved population was the proliferation of sherds from spherical vessels: bowls, tureens, and lids, or other curved surfaces. West and Central African cultural dishware displays a preference for bowls and curved vessels (pitchers, jugs, crocks, cisterns) as the norm (Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992: 96–107). Flat plates and platters were quite rare among the enslaved. When found among enslaved living spaces, it is because they were acquired as hand-me-downs from their European masters.

3.3.2 An “X” on Hume Plantation Colonoware?

Among the hundreds of colonoware sherds found on the Hume Plantation, there is only one example of a sherd with a possible “X” incised on it. The mark is incomplete since a lower quarter of it was broken off. The piece came from a Level 2 context (mid 19th century), in Unit 16B. Unit 16B was in a boundary or “liminal” area between Cabins 6 and 7 on the more distant (away from the Main House) end of the slave street and is separate from the twenty-one ritual deposits identified through pattern. The clay is the typical reddish-brown found on the plantation grounds and the sherd appears to come from the bottom of a vessel. It was found in the context of ten other sherds, some of which had been fire blackened. These do not represent the whole vessel and no other pieces were found that would have made reconstruction possible. Ceramic petrography was not completed due to there being only a single sample and due to its incompleteness. It was determined that an in-depth laboratory analysis of this partial piece would not be warranted unless other pieces with “X” marks were found.

The deposit was notable, though, because the eleven pieces were all buried together in one event rather than spread out as inadvertent cast-offs or refuse within a general area. In addition, they were placed in a deposit positioned at the boundary between two cabins where there was evidence of a fence line, indicated by the small-diameter post stains of approximately 7 centimeters (less than 4 inches) that were commonly associated with fenced-in backyard garden areas. The deposit would have been consciously chosen, as it would have required digging around the fence line to accommodate it. Were the sherds simply the mundane remains of a broken vessel, they would have been much more conveniently disposed of in the refuse pit.

Ritual use of colonoware often included pouring liquids in a ritual context and/or preparing hoodoo ingredients over a fire or storing materials. Other researchers have posited that the “X” mark found on some colonoware at other sites can be attributed as a maker’s or owner’s mark by enslaved potters who could not write their names. Most notably, “Dave the Potter” from Edgefield, South Carolina is known to have signed his pottery with an “X,” progressing to signing “Dave,” and eventually including short rhyming comments as his stamp of identity and authenticity on his colonoware vessels over 200 miles west of Georgetown/Hume Plantation (Joseph Reference Joseph2011).

Other “X”-marked pots have been found around the Cooper River, South Carolina, which is approximately 60 miles southwest of Georgetown/Hume Plantation (Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992: 27). The likelihood of colonoware being traded between these disparate South Carolina locations is minimal, since there would have been no incentive to trade items regularly produced at home. One incidence of an “X”-marked colonoware sherd is not sufficient to draw a conclusion about its possible ritual use, even though the contextual circumstances suggest purposeful burial that sets it apart from general refuse. Instead of incised “X” marks on colonoware, it was far more common on the Hume Plantation to find two nails crossed in an “X” configuration and included with or on top of a ritual deposit (see Figure 11).

Figure 6 Blue bead from ritual deposit.

Source: Photo by the author.

Figure 7 Crossed nails from a ritual deposit – corroded.

Source: Photo by the author.

Figure 8 Handcut square nails – 18th to early 19th century.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 9 Commercial voodoo doll.

Source: Author’s collection.

Figure 10 European ceramic sherd examples.

Source: Photo by the author.

Figure 11 Doll arm/hand.

Source: Photo by the author.

There are three ritual deposits among the twenty-one that included colonoware. These were in Units 27B and 27D (Cabin 3) and Unit 12 (Cabin 2). Of these three, only one had the stand-alone sherd with a possible “X” mark.

Iron (to be discussed in Section 3.6) and earthenware were common materials used in house charms and shrines; colonoware pieces found in some ritual deposits suggest that it was also used for this purpose (Davidson Reference Davidson2015: 100–101). House charms were usually buried in the floor, in the foundation corners, and near doorways and windows. Their purpose was to protect the house from evil forces. Installing a house charm often required a sacrifice as well, usually a white bird or a chicken (Parrinder Reference Parrinder1969: 161–162).

3.4 Beads and Color Symbolism

There were five colored glass beads found in the Hume Plantation slave quarter. Though a small sample, they date to between the 18th and the early 19th centuries; were found in different stratigraphic levels, indicating different time periods; and were found in only two colors: blue and yellow/amber. The beads were in three different cabin contexts, suggesting different ownerships and possible insight into the color symbolism or value of beads in three different time periods: (1) in the pre-plantation era of Cat Island – among Native Americans likely when Gaillard operated a trading post; (2) during the plantation eras, among the enslaved Africans; and (3) in the emancipation era, among those populations. One cobalt-blue bead (the oldest bead example) was associated with a ritual deposit in Cabin 3, which was the Driver’s House (see Table 3).

The driver was normally one of the enslaved who was entrusted with driving the plantation owner’s carriage and oversaw the horses and stable equipment. The Driver’s House was also notably different compared to all the other “Negro houses” depicted on the hand-drawn plat map (see Figure 3). The house was divided lengthwise by a north–south wall and is the only one configured that way in the slave quarter. Objects associated with horse tack were found in the east side of the divided cabin, which suggests the possibility that a portion of the house was used as a specialty workspace for the driver. Items such as metal buckles used on horse bridles; pieces of a bridle bit; awls for leatherworking and repair to saddles, bridles, and other riding equipment; and part of an axle (carriage) were found in that space.

As stated in Section 2, Bartholomew Gaillard operated a trading post in Jamestown, approximately 25 miles away from the Hume Plantation, over a century earlier than the plantation itself was established. Gaillard was also a property owner on what became South Island, adjacent to Cat Island. It is feasible that Gaillard could have been the original source for the oldest blue-glass trade bead found on the Hume Plantation slave street.

An archaeological relative dating method was used to determine the age of the beads, where comparative analysis was carried out based upon the size, hue, shape, design, and manufacture technology of the known trade bead types found in the American Southeast (see Table 1). This analysis was done in concert with excavation levels for a chronological range and included any association between and among other artifacts found within the same stratigraphic level that provided additional context. There were several archaeological reference materials consulted in dating the beads (Blair et al. Reference Blair, Pendleton and Francis2009; Eddins Reference Eddins2024; Marshall Reference Marshall2012: 189–205; Ogundiran Reference Ogundiran2002; Russell Reference Russell1997: 68–71; Stine et al. Reference Stine, Cabak and Groover1996; Trinkley Reference Trinkley1990).

Below is a discussion of four colors and what they symbolize in African hoodoo and ritual practices; this is a limited list of the colors most frequently found in the ritual deposits on the Hume Plantation. They create a pattern of color use and practice. Other colors with symbolic meaning in African culture include but are not limited to red, green, pink/purple, and brown, but these did not appear in the ritual deposits (Stine et al. Reference Stine, Cabak and Groover1996; Wassie Reference Wassie2021). The range of color symbolisms possible for multiple West African tribes that populated the Lowcountry goes beyond the scope of this Element; thus, while it is acknowledged, it is not extensively discussed. Discussions are limited to those colors that, by pattern of use and quantity, directly contribute to understanding the ritual objects on the Hume slave street.

3.5 Shells: Water and Protection Symbolism

Historically, West African peoples’ use of cowry shells began as a form of currency and to display wealth. Besides being used in market exchange and other transactions, the shells were also used to decorate homes and as personal adornment. This was most notable in the Yoruba region of West Africa. In some instances, oyster shells were used as jewelry grave goods for infants as a status symbol (Insoll Reference Insoll2015: 63). Cowries could also be used as visual cues to signal the family’s hierarchal place in society. Cowries in this context were worn in the 18th century to demonstrate political power by the wearer and thus helped maintain political influence by select families (Gregory Reference Gregory1996: 195; Haour 2019; Ogundiran Reference Ogundiran2002: 446).

For this Element, the relevance of cowry shells to West African groups before enslavement is in their ritual contexts and influences toward finding substitution shells in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Cowry shells are not native to or found along the South Carolina coastline or the American Southeast. The closest sites where one might find cowry shells in North America are the central to southern coast of California, parts of Mexico, and southward into South America (Hogendorn and Johnson Reference Hogendorn and Johnson1986). Trade for cowries would have been improbable among the Lowcountry enslaved who would have had little to no interaction with trade routes and groups that had access to them, and as cowries were an expensive resource, they would have had little means to procure them even if they had had interactions.

It is believed that ritual use of cowries likely began sometime after the 16th century in West Africa due to the abundance of them and the easy access to them by trade (Ogundiran Reference Ogundiran2002: 448). Cowries became associated with construction of home altars and shrines used in magic practice and ritual. However, as the cowry shells became common, they slowly lost some of their status value and those who held higher political and/or socioeconomic positions began to use beads in the construction of their altars and shrines instead. Beads were scarce and required more influence to acquire; different bead colors also had an impact on availability and price (Drewel and Mason Reference Drewel and Mason1998: 17–20).

Cowries were used for divination, in protective spells, and to facilitate contact with ancestral spirits besides the pantheon of gods and goddesses from whom protection and/or guidance were sought. Because cowries held such an important role, the enslaved continued to view the symbolic importance of shells as something that could not be overlooked. It is in this context that the archaeological evidence at the Hume Plantation suggests that oyster shells became a substitute in lieu of the traditional cowry shells.

Of the twenty-one recognizable ritual deposits found on the Hume slave street, seven included white oyster shells as part of a multiple-piece deposit. All of the object deposits combined with shells were found in association with Cabins 3 and 4 (see Table 4).

There is a pattern of two or more shells being bundled together with other items. Time and the decomposition of cloth and most organic materials have left only the shells, nails, and other man-made or bone objects intact. Sometimes iron objects corroded together that were once tightly bound. Water symbolism was significant as representing a place of entrance from the spiritual into the living world for spirits and considered a blessing substance (Chireau Reference Chireau2003; Insoll Reference Insoll2015: 132–133). This fit well with the concept of Christian baptism that had been adopted by converted African Americans. Assimilation and transference of this practice posed no conflict for the enslaved, who already believed in the blessings that water could bestow (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 53–54; Creel Reference Creel1988: 293–295).

3.6 Nails and Iron Symbolism

Two or more nails being included in a bundle with shells or other objects and bound in the shape of an “X” was one of the most consistent ritual practices discovered in the Hume Plantation slave quarter (see Figure 7). Sixteen of the twenty-one deposits included nails that were either originally bound into the shape of an “X” or had been included in the ritual bundle, where some had corroded onto other objects in the bundle over time. These constructions were found in deposits from the top of the slave street beginning with Cabin 2, closest to the Main House, and in association with Cabins 3, 4, and 5 out of the eight cabins represented on the east side of the slave street.

Earliest nail samples were hand-cut square nails (see Figure 8). The manufacture process indicates that the nails were produced in the late 18th to the early 19th centuries (1780s–1830).

The levels of stratigraphy in which the deposits were found establish a timeline. By the later half of the 19th century, nail-inclusive deposits have waned and there are only two examples, indicating a shift in spell types on the slave street.

The carved wooden anthropomorphic minkisi figures from West and Central Africa were distinguished by nails that were driven into the body of the statuette (see Figure 4). The use of iron nails was to infuse the figure with power and to invoke the spirit to carry out the spell. Nail fetishes were particular to the Kongo (Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 47). The more iron pieces inserted, the more power infused into the figure to engage the spirit. Nails could sometimes also be used to indicate the number of times a spirit had been called upon. Minkisi were used for a variety of purposes from protection and curing to witchcraft/cursing and revenge. When used by innocent and wronged individuals to exact vengeance on a wrongdoer, the practice was considered not as an evil act associated with black magic but as a “justice” spell that was warranted. The iron of the nail was considered a supernatural conduit that could be used in several ways (Bassani Reference Bassani1977: 36–40; Bockie Reference Bockie1993: 40–66; Chireau Reference Chireau2003: 47; Davidson Reference Davidson2015: 103–105).

Iron and iron concretions known as laterite were naturally occurring in the soils of West Africa. Tribes of the region, such as the Yoruba, the Ibo, and the Dagomba, considered certain stones, including laterite, to have meaning and spiritual power within them (Davidson Reference Davidson2015: 103–104). Blacksmithing and iron-working skills were known among West African tribes, but they came at a price since iron was considered very powerful and required sacrifice when collected: “iron concretions or laterites … were historically used by blacksmiths in the pre-colonial era as raw ore for iron smelting … laterites were considered dangerous … a sacrifice had to be performed” (Njoku Reference Njoku1991: 205).

Europeans and non-African peoples historically misunderstood this original practice of hammering the iron nails into the minkisi as an example of sympathetic magic. The commodification of the so-called voodoo doll in contemporary sales to tourists further promotes this misunderstood interpretation of the nails. Modern voodoo dolls replace nails with pins and are sold in kits or as ready-made souvenirs (Long Reference Long2001: 154; see Figure 9). This is not to suggest that conjurers did not practice sympathetic magic for harm, but with regard to the appropriated ideology of minkisi statuettes, the voodoo doll was a commercialized object that exploited a popular misconception.

Minkisi figures were intended to keep social order in check, either with positive magic or by black magic hex. The nkondi version of the minkisi (the nailed figures) was specifically designed as an aggressive vessel meant for harm, revenge, cruelty, or personal gain (MacGaffey Reference MacGaffey2000: 100–101; see Figure 4).

Nails were found in deposits located in the northeast and southwest foundation corners of the cabins and along the west (street-facing) walls. Cabin 3 had a significant number of nail-inclusive ritual deposits (five) that had been placed beneath the foundation framework of a shed in the backyard; these were placed equidistantly from each other. The shed was likely positioned near a garden area, based upon neighboring cabins that fenced in their gardens. Four of the five deposits included two oyster shells and/or sherd(s) of repurposed European white or blue ceramic.

3.7 European Ceramics: Repurposed Sherds

Eleven of the twenty-one ritual deposits contained sherd(s) of European ceramics: whiteware or pearlware. Three of the deposits also contained ceramic sherds that were blue (painted or with blue transferware patterns). Most deposits containing ceramics included one to two sherds. The significance of blue has already been discussed for its association with water, sky/heaven, and protective properties (see Section 3.4.1). In only two examples are both an oyster shell and a piece of white European ceramic ware included in the deposit. Since they are both white materials, utilizing both suggests that there was a differentiated symbolic intention for their inclusion in those two deposits. Perhaps white ceramic pieces were included with white oyster shells as symbolic of the color of purity, while the white oyster shell was symbolic of the water spirits and protection.

There were many different types of imported ceramic found on the Hume Plantation that reflect different historical periods, varying quality/quantity, and approximate dates when they were known to be imported from Europe and Great Britain to North America. The vast ceramic typologies are too numerous to list here, and aside from their context in ritual deposits and symbolic meaning, their relevance outside of ritual/magic deposits is limited to establishing a time frame (see Figure 10).

Table 5 shows a limited selection of ceramic pattern examples most frequently found and highest in quantity from field seasons 2011–2012 when the bulk were excavated. Dating of the ceramic examples found specifically on the slave street is based upon production technology combined with dates when the ceramic types were known to have been imported into the colonies and/or the postcolonial era in the American Southeast. The majority of the ceramic pieces did not have a surviving maker’s mark for more specific identification, so a more generalized diagnostic technique and median dates for them were applied (Fontana Reference Fontana1970; Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab [MACL] 2002; Miller Reference Miller1993; Mullins et al. Reference Mullins, Ylimaunu, Brooks, Kallio-Seppä, Kuorilehto, Nurmi, Oikarinen, Herva and Symonds2013; Nash Reference Nash and Shields2009; Shepherd Reference Shepherd2014).

3.8 Buttons

There were forty-five buttons of various sorts excavated among the “Negro houses” identified on the plat map of the slave street. Of those, two metal buttons with single brass eye-loop attachments on the back date from 1785–1800, and were found in a ritual deposit in Cabin 4. The single brass eye-loop buttons were mass produced during the post–Revolutionary War period, also known as the Confederation period – a time of transition for the fledgling United States (Ferling Reference Ferling2004).

The deposit was found below the west wall of Cabin 4 (street-facing) and below a window – which can be construed as a “liminal” area. The buttons were included in a bundle with two square nails and an oyster shell. Another button was placed in Level 3, at the foundation level of the cabin, and coincided with the late 18th-century date as provided by the diagnostic on the button manufacture style (Olson Reference Olson1963).

The remaining forty-three buttons were found in contexts that did not appear to indicate ritual. They were found throughout the slave quarter and were made of various materials: metal, glass, and ceramic. The oldest button was molded with a seam and a single wire loop for attachment on its back. Its construction dated it to 1760–1790 and only half of the button was recovered from Cabin 5 (Olson Reference Olson1963).

3.9 Native American Lithics: Repurposed

There were two instances of Native prehistoric lithics that had been repurposed for a ritual deposit. The first was found in the foundation of the northwest corner of Cabin 2. The biface, probably originally used as a scraper, was mostly intact, with one bottom corner broken off, and deposited with a blue European ceramic sherd. Its level of deposition indicates that it is one of the earliest cabins constructed on the slave street and prior to the property’s establishment as the Hume Plantation. As property ownership and exact dates are problematical due to loss of county records because of the Civil War, it is estimated that perhaps the earlier incarnation of the slave street was during the time of indigo cultivation.

The second instance was a repurposed Native rhyolite projectile point that was deposited in the northwest corner of the Overseer’s House on the west side of the slave street. This is one of the few structures partially excavated on the west side of the street, due to thick tree growth and underbrush. The projectile point was placed at the top of a square foundation post, as evidenced by the intact square post stain and the neatly laid projectile point on top of it.

It is unclear what the interpretation for this deposit may have been. It may have represented strength or aggression. Other uses of prehistoric articles such as Native American projectile points included in charm bundles were for their “intrinsic talismanic value” or the “ritual production of sparks” (Russell Reference Russell1997: 73). Repurposed chert projectile points were placed in deposits at the Hermitage Plantation in Tennessee and thought to symbolically represent spark-strikers (Russell Reference Russell1997: 74).

3.10 Medicinal Glass Bottles: Repurposed

There are two cases of remnant medicinal glass bottles being included in ritual deposits. The first was a partial bottle included with two nails and an oyster shell associated with the southeast corner of Cabin 3, and a second partial bottle was associated with a Cabin 4 deposit placed along the west wall (street-facing). Both bottles were of clear glass that had a faint aqua tinge.

The medicine they contained has not been definitively identified, but the bottles were recognizable as to type and design as being associated with European liniments or embrocation used for sore muscles and joints. Most of the enslaved relied upon their own conjurers and root doctors to provide treatments and salves for their illnesses and injuries; they did not trust in the white doctors as a rule. Plantation owners were also hesitant to obtain and pay for white doctors to treat the everyday maladies of their slaves unless they were quite severe and the investment in the cost of the slave dictated that they were “worth” the expense to save rather than replace.

However, for the enslaved individuals that had more contact with the Main House and the plantation owner’s family, such as the driver and/or, presumably, the enslaved persons in Cabins 1, 2, 3 (Driver’s House), and possibly Cabin 4, it is likely that they would have had medicines administered to them that the majority of the enslaved did not. Enslaved persons in the cabins closest to the Main House would have had more interactions with the owner and his family than with the rest of the enslaved population. For this reason, the owner may have been more forthcoming with simple medicines and salves for them than for the rest of the enslaved population. We can see other examples of cast-off or hand-me-down wares in the possession of the enslaved in the upper end of the slave quarter that were not found in the cabins lower on the slave street, indicating more access and a hierarchy of privilege afforded to certain enslaved individuals.

Calomel lotion to treat malaria is another possible content of some cast-off bottles. Calomel was usually packaged in yellow or brownish glass apothecary bottles rather than the aqua glass found, however. Cat Island was swampy and humid, and it is common knowledge that most plantation owners avoided their Lowcountry plantations during the summer months when malaria was a concern. As a rule, darker glass bottles were used to protect contents from degrading ultraviolet light, but contents could be packaged in aqua or clear glass bottles if in white powder or tablet form (Kang and Pedersen 2017). Calomel was used for a wide scope of ailments besides malaria: constipation, influenza, parasites, and syphilis. Its mercury content was the main active ingredient, but it also led to mercury poisoning that could result in the death of the mother or birth defects for infants born of women poisoned in this way (Kang and Pedersen 2017; Russell Reference Russell1997). Calomel fell out of favor by the 20th century due to its toxic mercury and chloride content. As to the purpose of medicinal bottle remnants in a ritual deposit, the context suggests that these may have been used symbolically for their known curative properties where they aligned with the intent of the spell being used.

3.11 Exotic or Unusual Objects

There are several special finds that were buried in association with the cabins, yards, gardens, fence lines, sheds, or in combination with other materials that raise questions about purposeful placement. Even though they do not fit an established pattern of other ritual or magical deposits in the quarter, the content and the contexts of these suggest that they were not randomly disposed-of materials. They are noted here for future reference in the event that similar deposits are found on the Hume Plantation or elsewhere. None were found in a refuse context, as refuse pits were quite recognizable on the slave street. Additionally, the items were of unusual or rare materials that would have been scarce and more difficult to acquire.

3.11.4 Rifle Mechanism

A rifle mechanism was found buried beneath the floor of Cabin 3. An X-ray indicated that the mechanism was broken when it was buried and had been deposited in a post–Civil War timeline. The post-emancipation context suggests that there may have been a ritual meaning to it being buried beneath the cabin floor. This item was not assigned a ritual deposit category due to lack of additional contextual evidence. However, other plantation sites have noted the magical qualities that enslaved peoples regarded iron/metal pieces as having and how they treated them and their disposal differently from usual refuse (Davidson Reference Davidson2015). Iron and metal pieces were most easily acquired in the shape of nails, but other items made of iron or metal were similarly valued. This was discussed in Section 3.6. A rifle mechanism, even broken, may have been perceived as a powerful symbol and its special burial away from the refuse pit would suggest that it was treated differently in a purposeful manner (see Figures 12 and 13).

Figure 12 Rifle mechanism X-ray – covered in corrosion.

Source: Author’s X-ray.

Figure 13 Early 1800s rifle – percussion cap lock illustration.

Source: Illustration by the author.

3.11.6 Shark Tooth

A shark’s tooth bundled with two nails made up one ritual deposit and the only one of its kind found in the slave quarter (see Figure 14). The tooth was initially thought to belong to a cat, which might suggest a justice or revenge spell. However, closer inspection of the tooth revealed serrated edges; faunal comparisons corrected its identification as a small shark tooth rather than a cat tooth. In hoodoo practice, spells using shark teeth are typically to harness strength and power to dominate others; a shark tooth can thus be thought of as a masculine and aggressive symbol. It was also used in personal adornment as protection against poisonous snakes and bad luck (Rediker Reference Rediker2008). However, in this placement context this interpretation was discounted as it was clearly not intended as an amulet or a spirit bundle to be worn by an individual.

Figure 14 Shark tooth from ritual magic deposit.

Source: Photo by the author.

Sharks also held a negative role in the slaving industry; slaves who were punished at sea were often thrown to the sharks. Thus, sharks became a symbol of terror and death to the enslaved (Pinckney Reference Pinckney2003: 23–24; Rediker Reference Rediker2008). Both the tooth and the nails showed signs of being burned before they were deposited, indicating that a ritual preparation known as altar work was likely.

The deposit itself was not in the context of or in association with a hearth or other burning activities in the cabin; it was placed near the outside of the northeast corner of Cabin 3, the Driver’s House. We can infer from this that the deposit was put there surreptitiously by someone not of the driver’s household, perhaps as a curse spell to cause harm to the driver and his family. Tensions among the enslaved were not unheard of; shared enslavement did not necessarily mean unity among the enslaved in their shared oppression. This act may indicate a level of jealousy or anger directed at the driver. The nature of this dissention will never be definitively known; it was a personal dispute perhaps, or possibly to do with his relationship with the Main House and the plantation owner providing unequal access to goods not afforded to other enslaved in the quarter.

4.1 Demonstrations of European Power in Landscapes

Excavation levels dating from the late 18th to the early 19th century reveal an architectural shift and use of space, incorporating manufactured hardware and uniform slave cabin construction and placement. Architectural imagery became much more controlled and communicated European power dynamics. Slave streets and the cabins as we have come to envision them were positioned along the drive that led up to the Main House. By this time, any pole roof constructions had been replaced with notched log walls and mortar, called tabby, that was made out of crushed oyster shells. Floors continued to be primarily dirt, but uniform hearths and brick chimneys became the norm. Finished floors, larger cabins and hearths, and clapboard siding arrived in the 19th century.

The reasons for the change in the construction style and layout of slave streets have been well debated and reflect an assertion of the European masters’ power (Davidson Reference Davidson1971; Ferguson Reference Ferguson1992: 63–82; Land Reference Land1969; Singleton Reference Singleton2009; Vlach Reference Vlach1993: 13–14; Wells Reference Wells1998). The visual impact of uniformity within European parameters was purposeful in that it denied the self-expression of enslaved individuals in their lived spaces. Any references to African traditions or beliefs were forced into clandestine practice (Epperson Reference Epperson and Singleton1999; Singleton Reference Singleton2009).

Despite this mindset, the enslaved were still allowed to utilize their cabin yards for cultivating personal gardens to supplement their subsistence needs and for outdoor tasks. Cooking and other food preparations during hot months were often done outdoors to escape the heat that became stifling indoors. Small sheds that were allowed to store tools and personal belongings freed more space inside the cabins. Pieces of heavy stoneware/salt-glazed jugs were excavated in several backyard contexts, dating to the 18th century, and were likely used to store potable water and other staples within individual cabins for convenience, to be refilled when necessary. The Hume Plantation plat map indicates that there was a well situated in the middle of the slave quarter and in close proximity to the communal kitchen (see Figure 3).

The enslaved found ways to circumvent the slave owners’ control of the environment so that they could continue their ritual practices and creation of magic objects and spirit bundles and charms. These practices helped to preserve expressions of identity and beliefs in the face of growing danger and vulnerability for doing so. Mundane and routine tasks observable to the overseer and the plantation owner provided a veil behind which ritual and other illicit practices (such as learning how to read and write) could take place.

The plantation owner’s control over the layout of the slave street became a widespread strategy throughout the South by the late 18th century, primarily in relation to slave street orientation and cabin construction (Pogue and Sanford Reference Pogue and Sanford2020). Prior to that time, most 17th–century accommodation quarters for the enslaved were little more than areas for their habitation or “slave villages.” Some plantations provided basic tools and extraneous materials that could be spared for their use, but by and large communities resorted to utilizing building methods they were familiar with from their homelands, such as thatching roofs with bound brush and using poles from young trees to create structural frameworks and fencing.

The only planned construction style for accommodating the enslaved in the 17th century tended to be for those who were indentured servants – most of whom were European and in service for a limited time, not under permanent ownership. In the case of indentured servants, accommodations normally consisted of a spare room within the Main House, a small house near the Main House, or a bunkhouse structure where multiple and frequently unrelated people resided (Pogue and Sanford Reference Pogue and Sanford2020). However, there is no archaeological evidence or historical account of any structure on what became the Hume Plantation grounds that was intended for indentured servants.

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, specific spatial relationships existed between the Main House and other structures (Vlach Reference Vlach1993). The slave street was not just to accommodate the enslaved; it was meant to showcase the plantation owner’s assets, which included his slaves along with livestock and crops. The slave street normally led the visitor through the center of the plantation grounds past the cabins and culminated at the Main House as the pinnacle of the property (Vlach Reference Vlach1993).

Cabin 3 came to be identified as the Driver’s House (see Figure 15) and was somewhat larger than the average cabin. The Driver’s House measured approximately 6 meters by 5 meters (20 ft × 16 ft). It was identified based upon artifacts associated with equipment for carriage and horse care. The cabin design also set it apart from the other cabins; its unique floor plan showed a wall that split the cabin in half in a north–south orientation instead of the typical east–west split otherwise known as “saddlebag” construction (Vlach Reference Vlach1993). This unique split separated the back of the house from the front, or the west side that faced the slave street. It suggests that the back of the house was possibly used by the driver to make or repair tack as part of his duties; he would have been permitted access to some leatherworking tools (awls) to do this job. A saddlebag construction, on the other hand, is intended to split a cabin in half in an east–west orientation to lodge two families.

Figure 15 Driver’s house – Cabin 3 – floor plan and ritual deposit locations.

Source: Illustration by the author.

All of the cabins appeared to have dirt floors and post stains indicating fencing that divided house yards. These post stains were mainly of younger trees; most were approximately 12–15 centimeters (approximately 6 inches) in diameter. Wider post stains in the front of the cabins of approximately 20 centimeter (8 inch) diameter suggest that most of the cabins also had a porch area when wooden floors replaced dirt floors in the 19th century.

Today, original structures from the Hume Plantation no longer survive. All that remains of built structures are surface artifacts such as pieces of scattered brick where slave cabin chimneys and hearths once stood and subsurface remnants of building materials such as nails, hinges, and other nondegradable items. Specific dates of cabin deconstruction are unknown since in the post–Civil War era the face of Cat Island plantations changed. It was common practice to salvage and repurpose building materials for use in other structures. This was true of the slave street cabins as well as the Main House itself.

Emancipation triggered a gradual decline in African population, but a few African Americans stayed on into the early 20th century. Support beams and parts of the gable and roof were repurposed from the Hume Main House into the Yawkey’s new lodge construction on South Island in the 1930s, while another section of the original house was relocated and incorporated into the construction of the Main House of the Mount Pleasant Plantation in Andrews, South Carolina belonging to the Fredrick Defoe family. Defoe was appointed as Tom Yawkey’s guardian after his parents passed away.Footnote ⁹

Artifacts excavated on the former Hume slave street provide relative chronological diagnostics based on ceramics, nails, and other materials’ technology and manufacture styles and import versus local status. The last known occupancy of the remaining slave cabins can be approximated to the early 20th century (Wells Reference Wells1998). We know that some of the slave cabins were still standing in the late 1930s because artist Andrew Wyeth visited Cat Island and painted a scene of the cabins in 1937. Wyeth’s watercolor was titled “Under the Live Oaks.”

While most of the ritual/magic deposits found were dated to the 18th and 19th centuries, it is notable that six out of twenty-one could be dated to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is important in that it demonstrates that hoodoo rituals were still used. Furthermore, evidence suggests that some status materials such as the Victorian faceted amber glass beads were still prized (Davidson Reference Davidson2015).

4.2 Christianity and African Ritual/Magic Traditions

The population ratio of African to European in Georgetown County was estimated at three to one, respectively, in the 18th century.Footnote ¹⁰ A collection of roughly twenty African slaves organized a group in St. Paul’s Parish to stage a revolt known as the Stono Rebellion, or Cato’s Rebellion, near Charleston. This event was a mere 60 miles south of the Hume Plantation.

This band of runaways had killed thirty-five people – their plantation owners and other colonists. The runaways targeted any Europeans they encountered as they made their way southward, traveling toward the Florida territory to take advantage of the Spanish promise of freedom to any Africans able to get there.

By 1850, only 10 percent of the population in Georgetown County was European. Whites became very conscious of being the minority population and how vulnerable they were if the enslaved organized rebellion again but with larger, more organized groups. The legal response to contain any future thoughts of rebellion was to institute new regulations on slave punishment and to regulate African spiritual practices. This was particularly prohibitive of religious or spiritual gatherings (Creel Reference Creel1988: 197–200; Shuler Reference Shuler2009).

Christianizing efforts were scrutinized in the Lowcountry. Despite the misconception that Christian ministers were allowed the freedom to preach anywhere on a traveling circuit, this was not the case (Anderson Reference Anderson2005; Chireau Reference Chireau2003; Creel Reference Creel1988: 167–210; Pinckney Reference Pinckney2003). Traveling ministers had to convince plantation owners to allow them access in the Lowcountry. Sermons and biblical lessons had to promote and justify enslavement to the satisfaction of the plantation owners (Joyner Reference Joyner1984; Pollitzer Reference Pollitzer2005; Young Reference Young2007: 71). Lessons from the King James version that espoused the virtue of obedience of slaves to their masters, that is, Ephesians 6:5–9, were welcomed, as were lessons that promoted conformity, passivity, and submitting to authority. Stories such as Moses’ leading the slaves out of Egypt, for example, were met with disapproval. Christianizing the enslaved became more a process born of fear and the need to exert rigid control than of spiritual conversion.

The African Methodist Episcopal church was originally made up of freed and enslaved Africans as a stand-alone church that had broken off to create its own congregation because some white congregants did not want to allow Africans as members in the main church body (Creel Reference Creel1988). The Yawkey family funded the building of the St. James AME church in the village of Maxwell on Cat Island in 1928 to accommodate descendants of the plantations. It was attended by a traveling minister two Sundays per month and continued for fifty years until the church ended in 1979 (Giauque et al. Reference Giauque, Betsworth and Durbetaki2010: 26). Since then, only occasional or commemorative church services are held there once or twice per year.

Despite efforts over two centuries to remove traditional African religious and spiritual beliefs, the converted continued to practice hoodoo and pay respects to various African religions into the 20th century on Cat Island. They saw no fundamental conflict with Christian ideals.

6.1 The Three Original Research Questions: Results

At the beginning of the Hume Plantation Slave Street Project, three research questions were posited: (1) What were the hoodoo activities of the enslaved while on their “own time” on the slave street? (2) Can we discern and recognize differences in ritual and magic practices from daily tasks and discard activity in the archaeological record? (3) What hoodoo activities continued in secrecy post-emancipation, or did they revert to practicing openly once the yoke of slavery was removed?

6.2 Funerary Practices and Honoring the Dead

There are two African American cemeteries on Cat Island today: Maxwell cemetery and Sargent cemetery. These served descendant African communities into the 20th century, though neither is active now. They are, rather, the subject of a preservation project, “Listen to the Ancestors” (McGahee and Edmonds Reference McGahee and Edmonds2007). People (tribal descendant populations from West and Central Africa) still visit the gravesites on occasion to honor their ancestors and practice the Bakongo and Gullah traditions of marking the graves to show respect and reverence for the ancestors (McGahee and Edmonds Reference McGahee and Edmonds2007).

Water is still a potent symbol connecting the living world and the spirit world. Many gravesites are decorated with objects associated with water, such as shells, pitchers, bottles, and repurposed jars. These items are ritually broken and left on the grave upside down because it is believed that the ritual breakage helps the spirit escape so that it can move on to the spirit world (McGahee and Edmonds Reference McGahee and Edmonds2007). Other ritual objects include things related to light, such as candle holders and lamp shades – intended to aid the spirit by lighting its way as it moves on (McGahee and Edmonds Reference McGahee and Edmonds2007: 11, 18–19). Finally, personal items that held meaning for the deceased are also occasionally left at the gravesite (McGahee and Edmonds Reference McGahee and Edmonds2007). Visitors are dissuaded from disturbing or cleaning off left objects to avoid disturbing the spirits. One can see decades-old artifacts around gravesites where they are less susceptible to time and decomposition.

6.3 Conjure Today

Ideologically, observing traditional African beliefs and practicing hoodoo while also following Christian teachings is not necessarily considered to be in conflict (Long 2003). Conjurers may belong to the AME Church or to other denominations and simultaneously practice hoodoo as reverence for a creator god and ancestors is regarded as consistent with values that embrace both (Nichols Reference Nichols1989). For instance, keeping holy water and cloths from Catholic services around the house for cleansing as well as protective actions has always been encouraged and demonstrates the synthesis between Christian and African perspectives among followers (Creel Reference Creel1988; Nichols Reference Nichols1989).

According to descendants, in the 1920s and 1930s there were three known local families in Georgetown and Horry Counties with conjurers among them. Once a year they would drive to New York State from South Carolina to gather in a town outside Albany, New York. These gatherings were much like family reunions, although the families were not necessarily biologically related. They felt joined spiritually through their root men and women. There, they would spend several days sharing community, traditional conjure knowledge, and resources in conjuring practices. In the latter half of the 20th century, many of these generationally taught root men were decreasing in number due to loss of interest among their youth and there was concern about carrying on the traditions. However, in the 21st century there seems to have been a resurgence in interest and more among the new generations are learning these traditions (Pinckney Reference Pinckney2003).

6.4 Ritual Crime and Hoodoo in Today’s World

Cemeteries today are a locus for hoodoo work. Conjurers will visit cemeteries or send their clientele there to invoke a prepared spell jar, a modern version of a spirit bundle. The author of this Element is an archaeologist with a subspecialty in forensic archaeology used to assist law enforcement in relation to clandestine burials and other outdoor crime scenes, and crime scene analysis. In 2012 the author was called upon by law enforcement to consult on and assist with an investigation into cemetery disturbances where evidence of hoodoo activity was taking place (Moses Reference Moses2020). There was more than one cemetery involved, but only one requested law enforcement intervention. The belief was that if the motivations were discovered, this might help to identify the perpetrators (Moses Reference Moses2020). Most of the ritual evidence indicated magic spells intended to address relationship problems, some appeared to be requests for healing, and there was also evidence of revenge spells (Moses Reference Moses2020).

Selected graves had been partially dug up and spell jars were placed near the coffins. None of the decedents had been disturbed in their coffins. Cemetery maintenance workers would find disturbed graves when they reported for work and the initial response was to collect the items left in and around the graves and fill the graves back in, eliminating all evidence of the disturbance. Several spell jars were thrown away and the gravesites were cleaned of residue candle wax, black feathers, eggs, and empty alcohol bottles or cans as a result (Moses Reference Moses2020). This was done to protect the reputation of the cemetery and prevent distress for the families of the deceased. It was initially believed that pranksters were perpetrating these activities and that they would eventually lose interest and stop.

However, cemeteries continued to suffer from gravesite disturbances despite management investing in surveillance cameras. The local police were called and patrols increased around the area during nighttime hours. Still, disturbances continued and they could not apprehend the perpetrators. The author was called in to provide some insight into the hoodoo practices and assess the crime scenes.

Spell jars and ritual materials that were not disposed of were analyzed for contents. Spell jars contained varied ingredients including peppers, polaroids (presumably of the intended targets of the spells), eggs, dirt (assumed to be goopher dirt – dirt collected from specific graves), black or red ribbons, and pieces of white paper with conjure words of power written on them (Moses Reference Moses2020). Candle wax (white, red) was present over the lid of some of the jars, suggesting altar work. Headstones or grave markers had coins scattered about the top of the grave; some gravesites also had broken eggs and feathers (white or black) around them (Moses Reference Moses2020).

The ingredients spoke to the different kinds of spell for different individuals; it appeared that there was no single participant involved in serial acts but that several individuals were each engaging in individual acts, since the spell jars and their contents were very disparate. When the scrutiny of one cemetery became too intense, hoodoo rituals would appear at other cemeteries in the region, followed by a silent period when no activities were detected. When the practices reappeared, they were very sporadic over the following year. It is not known if they stopped altogether or relocated to less risky cemeteries; most cemeteries involved were not eager to share this information. This case is meant only as one example of a collection of hoodoo practices in one place in a modern era; it is not intended to suggest that hoodoo is inherently criminal.

Hoodoo practice takes many forms and of course most do not require the attention of law enforcement. The vast majority of conjure magic is directed at assistance for relationships, health, divination, and success. Hoodoo magic is practiced around the home and in other places where spiritual forces are believed to gather. Black magic spells make up a minority of incidences (Anderson Reference Anderson2005; Chireau Reference Chireau1997).

The conjuring tradition may run in cycles of generational interest and social change, but it is a tradition that is integral to descendant African American identity in the South. Of course, not all subscribe to its efficacy or participate, and in today’s world commercialism has entered in to create an economic industry based upon tourism and popular culture appeal, which has added yet another new dimension.

Most would agree that historically hoodoo provided a lifeline of hope and belief through a violent and oppressive chapter in African American history. The ancestors still had a role in the lives of the living who desperately needed to feel tethered to their own culture and the beliefs that were denied them under the oppression of enslavement. Hoodoo cultivated respect for those with knowledge of Nature and its plants and animals; it influenced and was influenced by multiple cultures to evolve into something new. It provided an outlet for rage, jealousy, and revenge among those who were otherwise left feeling helpless. Today, conjure magic continues to adapt to the needs of its participants and endures as a tradition in the test of time.