Across the South, the word witch has been used to explain what people fear and cannot control. For generations, healers, midwives, conjurers and root workers carried knowledge their communities needed, yet often faced suspicion when tragedy struck. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, we explore the real lives and southern legends behind those branded as witches. From colonial courts to mountain cabins and coastal swamps, these stories reveal how the line between healing and haunting has always been thin and how fear can turn ordinary people into figures of folklore.
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Anderson, Jeffery E. Conjure in African American Society. Louisiana State University Press, 2005.American Folklife Center, Library of Congress — regional oral history collections on conjure, hoodoo, and midwifery.Anniston Hot Blast and Birmingham Age-Herald (Alabama newspapers), 1880s witchcraft coverage.Deep South Magazine. “Julia ‘Aunt Julie’ Brown: Debunking Her Voodoo Priestess Mythos.”Encyclopedia of Louisiana. “Marie Laveau.” Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.Encyclopedia Virginia. “Sherwood, Grace (ca. 1660–1740).”Federal Writers’ Project. South Carolina Slave Narratives. Library of Congress, 1938.Ferry Plantation House Museum archives, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Fett, Sharla M. Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
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