Granny’s Secret

Conjury
by
Denise Alvarado

Creole Moon Publications

 GRANNY’S SECRET CONJURY
By Denise Alvarado

RANDMOTHERS in the not-so-distant past held the

secrets to many conjures that proved effective for
those that needed them. Often working in plain sight,
family members didn't even know what their gran-
nies were ixin’ because down south women are always ixin’
something. Could be good, could be helpful, could be devious,
delicious or even harmful; but, whatever it is, you can best be-
lieve Granny’s taking care of business.
Our grandmothers leave us much to be thankful for. They
have remedies for anything and everything. Have a stomach
ache? “Go pick you some of that mint in the yard and make a tea
of it, It will sho’ nuff make you feel better.“ Get burned from the
stove? “Quick, get you some of that there witch hazel and mix it
with some of that baking soda and put it on that burn.” Or, simp-
ly grab a leaf off of that aloe vera plant sitting on the kitchen
windowsill, slice it open, and gently apply the cooling gel for in-
stant relief. Many remedies were either in the garden or in the
kitchen cabinet, which doubled as a medzin cabinet, and every-
thing was within arm’s reach, of course. Our grandmothers were
from a time of doing what you can with what you’ve got. Kind of
seems like we’ve come full circle, doesn’t it? Given many folks
are having to do just that nowadays—make do with what

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

they’ve got.
But, making do with what you’ve got is what hoodoo, root-
work and granny cures are all about. And if you pay attention to
your grandmother, you may learn a few things to help you and
your family get through the hard times.
Alas, a lot of folks do not pay attention, at least not fully. I
know I took a lot for granted. But that’s what kids do. It’s not like
granny says, “here let me show you how to throw down on
someone” or “let me teach you how to hoodoo”. For those of us
who grew up with the in luence of southern bayou living, we
were doing just that—living. You don’t put a name on living, un-
less you are living large, living well or living in sin. In fact, I re-
member hearing hoodoo was to be feared because “them hoo-
doos” knew both sides of the coin. Hoodoo was power undenied.
I think we were told these things for our own protection; they
certainly didn't want the words Voodoo or Hoodoo coming out
of the mouths of babes. Not in the south. Not during the 1960s.
And certainly not from a little olive skinned girl who played with
snakes.
Instead, I was taught various spiritual skills like working with
candles, performing sé ances, dowsing, and automatic writing for
starters. Much more along the lines of spiritualism with a bit of
hoodoo and Voodoo mixed in. That’s what Voodoo in New Orle-
ans looked like for me—a big pot of magical, spiritual gumbo.
And the graveyards, well the graveyards are magni icent in New
Orleans, worthy of an afternoon outing. But, never forget to
leave those nine pennies at the gate for the Guardian who could
be Manman or Oyá . And, if that ole Mr. Butterworth got on
someone’s last nerve, then the visit may be in the evening, pull-
ing up a little tar from the roads along the way. You know when
tar is poured in the cracks in the road and the over low lattens

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

out? Well, if you can get a nice couple of lat pieces like that—all
you need is a large lat head screwdriver or a butter knife to
wedge between the tar and the street and pull it up—then you
can make a nice little ouanga paket with that dirt from the cem-
etery visit, some of the sulfur in the medicine cabinet, a playing
card, a cockroach, if you have the internal fortitude, and a sew-
ing needle. Mmm hmm, let’s just say Mr. Butterworth wouldn’t
be getting on anyone’s last nerve anymore. No sir. That black tar
ouanga works like a charm.
Fast forward 35 to 40 years and I am now a Granny of two
beautiful boys. I’ve earned my right to speak on particulars and
peculiarities as a Granny with my own secret Creole conjury. It
is a calling that is experienced, in both traditional Hoodoo and
in the Indian way, that determines whether or not you are a
healer or rootworker. Something profound occurs that sets you
apart at birth, such as being born with a caul on your head. Oth-
ers become rootworkers and healers when they are designated
so through family members or experience something profound
that calls them later in life. Sometimes it’s the spirits themselves
that call you into service. Another way is to pay your dues and
go through rigorous rites of passage and initiations. I personally
experienced three of the aforementioned scenarios.
In the Native way, medicine is life experience, it is spirit, it is
respect for tradition. It means “listen or your tongue will make
you deaf” and not arguing with elders. I recently witnessed
someone who had an apparent falling out with a well-known
conjure woman. He slammed her publicly and in my opinion un-
necessarily, (these kinds of disputes should always be discussed
in private), cursing her out and calling her all sorts of despicable
things, accusing her of fraud (such a popular word so freely
thrown around in the online conjure community nowadays) and

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

identi ied her by name. This is the behavior of someone who
was not taught and certainly doesn’t practice (and if he was
taught, made a conscious decision to ignore it on that day), two
of the basic values of indigenous traditions—African and Indian
alike—respect for elders and good character. Known as Iwe Pele
in the African Yoruba tradition Ifa, a person of good character
respects their elders and would never engage in such behavior.
And if they did, as people are imperfect and will invariably en-
gage in regrettable behavior at times, they would publicly apolo-
gize and take responsibility for their behavior, since what they
did was done publicly and not of good character. Yet, this per-
son, a self-proclaimed Hoodoo and conjure expert, is likely half
her age and evaluates other conjurers’ practices all the time,
calling people inauthentic when what they do is not according to
his understanding. This kind of thing is the result of not growing
up in the sociocultural and historical context of an indigenous
tradition. The basic values are not taught; thus, they are lost and
unfortunately, such behavior has become acceptable for many
online, self-proclaimed hoodoos and priests of African-derived
traditions nowadays.
Folks don’t realize how lucky they are to be able to learn
about Southern conjure openly today, without the threat of per-
sonal bodily harm. But, learning a tradition without the histori-
cal context does something to it. It becomes something different,
as illustrated by the aforementioned example. It becomes il-
tered through a vacuum, de ined by outsiders, and its narrative
changes. There are so many absolute statements made about
Hoodoo today by folks who did not grow up in the South and/or
who are not people of color (for the purpose of this discussion
this refers to anyone of African, Indian or Creole heritage) that it
is mind boggling. This is why I decided to start Crossroads Uni-

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

versity and create a Conjure Club, where these values and
historical experiences and alternate points of view are taught
and passed on. It’s not just about the magic; it’s about observing
and preserving a rich cultural lifeway.
Hoodoo, conjure, rootwork and obeah are all spiritual sys-
tems that emerged during the Diaspora, when African tradition-
al religions were dif icult to sustain. I would also add that spirit-
ualism emerged in New Orleans at a later date as a direct result
of the in luence of Christianity on indigenous religions (readers
are encouraged to read the Louisiana Black Code or Code Noir
to gain a better understanding of how Catholicism in particular
came to be such an integral part of the expression of New Orle-
ans Voodoo and Hoodoo in Louisiana. A copy of the code can be
found here: http://www.crossroadsuniversity.com/code-
noir.htm). Granny conjure of all sorts of varieties developed in
all regions of the United States, and distinctly in the Appalachian
mountains. A similar process occurred in other areas of the New
World where slaves were transplanted—Mexico, Central and
South America and the Caribbean. African traditional religions
were in luenced by Christianity and reimagined by its adherents
in the contexts of different environments.
Hoodoo didn’t always look like it does today. Hoodoo is a
conglomeration of African traditions that, in the throes of slav-
ery and forced assimilation, began to change (readers are en-
couraged to refer to Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald’s 2013 scholar-
ly treatise on the evolution of Hoodoo in America, its cultural
reinterpretation by outsiders, and quiet survival as a hidden
system in the Black Spiritual underground). As various races
and ethnicities interacted in a multicultural environment, par-
ticularly in New Orleans where slaves were brought directly
from Africa with their Voudou Spirits and gris gris (not via Haiti,

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

a common misconception...although, there was a later in lux of
slaves from San Dominique that did in luence Voodoo in New
Orleans), Hoodoo took on characteristics of the various religi-
omagical traditions of the people interacting with each other in
the new environment; particularly, on the plantations. And in
New Orleans, that is a lot of different cultures. It explains the di-
verse pantheon of spirits and saints that exists in New Orleans
Voodoo. There are African Spirits like Legba and the Gran Zombi
(Nzambi), Haitian lwas like Erzulie Freda and Baron Samedi,
Latin American spirits like the La Madamas and Exus, Native
American spirits like Black Hawk, and New Orleans’ own spirits
like Annie Christmas, Marie Laveaux and Jean Montenee. In ad-
dition, there are hundreds of Catholic saints, some of which have
become permanent ixtures in New Orleans such as St. Expedite,
St. Anthony and numerous manifestations of the Virgin Mary.
Grandmothers may have worked with any number of spirits,
depending on the region where they lived and the religious tra-
dition of their families. They may have been granny doctors, root
doctors or traiteurs. They most likely did a lot of their own gath-
ering of herbs and roots, and/or elicited the help of a swamper.
In the cities, they likely turned to the corner drugstore for ingre-
dients they needed, especially as the old swampers became a
rare breed. Certainly after the turn of the century, in the early
1900s and especially during the 1930s, the landscape of the
granny tradition began to change as a result of the emergence of
commercialized Hoodoo, mail order houses and Hoodoo drug-
stores. Yet, those grannies that lived in the country, in the moun-
tains and along the bayous were not in luenced so much by com-
mercialism as their city counterparts.
There is a difference between commercial Hoodoo and home-
grown Hoodoo or what Hazzard-Donald (2013) calls Old Tradi-

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

tion Black Belt Hoodoo. What she describes is different from
and closer to original Hoodoo than my own experience as a Cre-
ole woman growing up in a suburb of New Orleans. My experi-
ences were through a multiethnic cosmological perspective. I
would never attempt to diminish, deny or dictate the history of
African Americans in the South, their mechanisms of expression
and maintenance of an important indigenous spiritual system
that, one can make a good argument for, was indeed a religion in
it’s earliest form in the Americas.
Now, I know that last statement is going to ruf le some feath-
ers. That is okay, I hope that with the ruf ling there is an open-
mind and a critical analysis of the facts as told by people of color
and those who grew up in the Deep South. Hoodoo is more than
just “African American folk magic with European in luences and
Native American herbalism.” And, it is much more than psychic
readers and website conjure doctors. It is a living, breathing
tradition that grew out of slavery. You cannot take the black and
red out of Hoodoo and still have Hoodoo no matter how hard
one may try. Hoodoo and rootwork are cosmological lenses and
belief systems through which adherents make sense of the
world. They must be viewed with an open mind and with con-
sideration for their historical and situational contexts in order
to truly understand it. And that is why granny conjure is so im-
portant. That is why we need to talk to our grandmothers and
learn from them in order to carry on their tradition as they saw
it and experienced it, as opposed to simply relying on books and
reinterpretations by folks from outside of the South.
That said, there are pockets of granny conjure that are appear
to be largely European in origin - most of which have considera-
ble Native American in luences. For example, Appalachian gran-
ny magic has a considerable amount of Cherokee magic and

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

herbalism mixed into it. Readers are referred to two excellent
books speci ically about this variety of conjure: The Candle and
the Crossroads by Orion Foxwood and Staubs and Ditchwater by
Byron Ballard.
I have found that many people of color are reticent to speak
out and share their personal stories about conjure traditions in
their families. There is a great fear associated with being identi-
ied as a practitioner or coming from a family of practitioners,
that is so deeply ingrained in the psyche that they will never
speak up. Some people just want to disassociate with anything
that makes them look superstitious and ignorant. I don’t blame
them at all. Each of us has our own path to walk. And truth be
told, coming out isn’t always pretty. I have personally experi-
enced the dark side of going public as a rootworker and New Or-
leans Voodooist. Coming out makes one vulnerable to vicious
attacks by others with hateful agendas. Unlike my haters, how-
ever, I didn’t buy the privilege to have my experiences. I grew up
during a time when there still wasn’t equal rights for all. Racism
was rampant. I’ve seen the oozies in the back seat of the cars of
people going “hunting” for people like me. And on the other side
of the coin, I know what it is like to be grateful one can passe
blanc (this phrase is used in Louisiana to refer to a person of color
who is light skinned enough that they can “pass for white”). Due
to the sociopolitical climate of the South, Voodoo and hoodoo
have been secretive, underground practices (Hazzard-Donald,
2013), and remain so for some folks even today, according to
well-known New Orleans practitioner the Divine Prince Ty
Emmecca (personal communication, 2013). Unless you were in
the tourist trade, being open about practicing any indigenous
tradition back in the day made you a prime target for racists and
the law, particularly in the cities.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 Somewhere along the line in the 1930s or so, city Grannies
started getting what they needed from the corner drug store.
Sometimes Grannies asked the local swamper to fetch a certain
root. The swamper provided a valuable service to rootworkers
and conjure doctors, The corner drug store also got a lot of their
Hoodoo curios and roots from swampers. But after a while,
swampers were edged out of the picture and the tradition began
to die out (though it did not disappear entirely).
As I grew older and asked my grandmother about some of
the traditions I observed when I was younger, I was unfortu-
nately told “you’re from the city, you wouldn’t understand.” I
felt hurt then. I didn’t understand. Why would I would have
been taught these things as a young child at 5 years old? At that
time I was told I would understand and that is why I was intro-
duced to the spirits in the irst place. I was called. We spent eve-
ry weekend for years in Mississippi bayou country. Surely that
doesn't make me all city does it? But it was my aunt who was
open with her beliefs with me, and apparently not with every-
one in the family. Not everyone wanted to understand and many
rejected it. That side of my family were Baptists. They just want-
ed to feel safe and secure and act like good Christians. And my
brothers, well, they simply weren't interested.
And so, as an adult I began to write things down (way before
reaching Granny status). The more I wrote, the more I remem-
bered (though I still can’t remember who gave me my irst Voo-
doo doll that I kept in my magic box until the fourth grade when
I decided to try a little doll conjure on my own. But, that’s a
whole nother story). For years now, this Granny has compiled
and recorded countless conjures found through formal studies
and research in journals, classic texts, receipt books, and from
friends, as well as from memory and experience. Here, I have

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

shared some examples of old-time conjures that have all but
been forgotten. They are now unearthed and ready to be revived
by today’s modern conjurer.

AGAINST HARM
Tear the page out of a bible that has the 23rd Psalm on it. Lay it
on a piece of yellow tissue paper and anoint the four corners
with pure extra virgin olive oil. Say the 23rd Psalm three times.
Fold both up three times towards you, then turn at a 90 degree
angle and fold three more times towards you. Only the yellow
tissue paper will be showing. Take the folded packet and wrap
in a piece of tin foil and place in a small white bag and keep it in
your right pocket or bra. Every day, take the packet out and un-
fold it carefully and read the 23rd psalm three times from the
torn out page of the Bible. Repeat for nine days. On the ninth
day, do not undo the packet; rather, write the same Psalm 23 on
a piece of brown paper without unfolding your packet and look-
ing at the torn out Psalm from the Bible. If you can write it luid-
ly without looking, any harm that has been done against you will
be nulli ied and you will be protected. Take the brown paper
and place it in the white bag along with a pinch of rue, a pinch of
hyssop and a piece of Devil’s Shoestring for a potent mojo bag
that protects against all harm.

TO FIND A THIEF
This work is a method of divination using a skeleton key and a
Bible. Tie the skeleton key to a red string so that it hangs like a
pendulum. Open the Bible to Psalm 50. Read Psalm 50 and then
hold that skeleton key from the string, dangling it above Psalm
50. Call out the names of people you suspect of stealing from

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

you, one at a time and pay attention to the direction in which
that key moves. If the key stands still, that person is not in-
volved. If the key goes in a circle counterclockwise as if unlock-
ing a door, that person is the guilty party. This motion unlocks
the answer. If the key moves in a circular motion as if locking a
door, that indicates the person whose name you called was in-
volved but not the one who actually stole from you. That motion
locks the person in as an accessory to the crime.

TO CAUSE WALKING FOOT

Walking Foot is a term that was used in the African American
communities to describe a condition that makes a person walk
funny or lose the use of their legs as a result of conjure. Prod-
ucts based on this old time practice came to be marketed in
commercial Hoodoo as Hot Foot, and are designed to make a
person run away or have trouble walking through the law of
contagion. Take six new pins and seven needles, stick point to
point in a new cloth and place under the doorstep of your ene-
my. When he or she walks over it, they will lose the use of their
legs. Notice that this conjure does not require the use of a pow-
der. I have provided a traditional formula for Walking Foot or
Hot Foot Powder in the article Ten Old-Style Hoodoo Powder
Formulas that uses fire ants as the primary ingredient as op-
posed to red pepper.

TO GIVE SOMEONE A HEADACHE

Get a few strands of your enemy’s hair, bore a hole in a tree, put
the hairs in the hole and plug it up with mud dauber dirt. You
can thus give them a headache which cannot be relieved until
their hair is removed from the tree.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 A CHARM TO MAKE SOMEONE
CRAZY
Address the Spirit of the Three Winds with the following words:
“Spirit of the Three Winds, hear me when I call. Go and make so
and so crazy!”
Don’t ask me the name of the Three Winds as I don’t know.
The number three is used in many conjures. While Hoodoo typi-
cally does not use long incantations and rhyming spells, this con-
jure illustrates very clearly the belief in the power of words
alone, as well as the fact that Christian elements are not always a
part of traditional conjure.
Nevertheless, this same conjure could easily be adapted by a
Christian worker as this: “In the name of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, hear me when I call. Go and make so and so cra-
zy!”

FOR PROTECTION
Mix up seven tablespoons of white cornmeal, seven tablespoons
of yellow cornmeal, seven tablespoons of salt, seven tablespoons
of sulphur, and seven tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Mix it up
real good and put in a salt shaker. Every morning at sunrise, go
around the perimeter of your home going counterclockwise and
sprinkle some of that mixture all around your home. This will
protect your home and family from psychic and spiritual attacks.
You can also do this around your car to keep it from breaking
down and to prevent accidents, and also at the threshold of your
doorways to keep unwanted people and spirits from entering.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 TO MAKE TROUBLE FOR AN ENEMY
To make trouble for an enemy, take some hair from the back of
a snarling, yelping mongrel and some hair from a black cat and
put them in a bottle with a tablespoon of gunpowder. Fill the
bottle with water from a running brook and sprinkle it in the
form of three crosses on your enemy’s doorstep, one at each
end, and one in the middle. This is supposed to bring a lot of
trouble for those residing there.

BULLET TALISMAN

This is by far one of my favorite talismans ever. Get an empty

ri le shell and clean it with salt water. Put a piece of Devil’s
shoestring in the bullet casing and add some sulphur, cayenne
pepper, rue, a small nail, and a pinch of dirt from the grave of a
soldier. Be sure to collect respectfully, asking permission and
leaving an offering of rum and 15 cents. Refer to the book,
Workin’ in da Boneyard by Denise Alvarado and Madrina Angel-
ique for proper cemetery protocol and collection of grave dirt.
Top it all off with blessed salt (salt over which you have prayed
the 23rd Psalm) or Kosher salt. Then, add a few drops of Fiery
Wall of Protection Oil or some other protection oil and seal with
black candle wax. Carry it with you for protection from all harm.
This may be carried in a mojo bag or encased in leather if you
would like.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 TO HARM AN ENEMY
To harm an enemy, take salt and pepper and put them into the
enemy’s clothing or home and say:

I put this pepper on you,

And this salt thereto,
That peace and happiness
You may never know.

Your enemy will soon be miserable.

TO MAKE HUSBANDS STAY HOME

Take sugar and cinnamon and mix together. Write the name of
the husband and wife nine times on a piece of paper, starting
with the husband’s name and writing the wife’s name directly
on top of the husband’s name. Sprinkle the paper with the cinna-
mon sugar. Roll the paper with names and put in a bottle of holy
water with some more sugar and honey. Lay it under the back
step to keep the husband from straying.

TO FIX A LANDLORD
Write the landlord's name nine times on a piece of paper and
place in a bottle. Add some gin, whiskey, and rum. Take two tea-
spoons of sugar (white sugar if the landlord is white, brown sug-
ar if the landlord is not white) and put water from three sources
in the bottle: some river water, water from the faucet and some
well water. Shake well every day at twelve o'clock. Burn nine
green candles—one a day for nine days—and say Psalms 1 and
18 each day. Plant the bottle with the neck down close to the
front door. This is believed to ensure you stay in your home.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 LUCKY CLOVE COOKIES
Take 3 pounds of lour, 1 pound of sugar, 1 pound of butter, 1
ounce of cloves. Wet with molasses enough to roll very thin. Cut
out round circles with a cookie cutter or by turning a glass up-
side down and pressing it into the dough. Bake quickly. To make
less cookies, cut the ingredients in half or thirds. Burn a green
candle anointed with oil of cloves while baking the cookies.
Read Psalm 5 for a special inancial favor or Psalm 6 for mercy
from your creditors.

GRANNY’S SECRET CURES

In addition to a variety of ixes and conjures to deal with life’s
daily challenges, grannies are known for their medicinal cures
and folk remedies. Granny’s ancestry would likely dictate the
type and complexity of the cure. For example, grannies of Euro-
pean ancestry and who were not enslaved or indentured serv-
ants, would have had time and access to different kinds of in-
gredients for their various preparations. These preparations of-
ten consisted of multiple ingredients and several steps in their
preparation. Take the use and preparation of birch water as a
shampoo, for example. A typical Domestic Receipt Book or
Household Companion provides these instructions (taken from
Henley’s Twentieth Century Book of Ten Thousand Formulas,
Processes and Trade Secrets, edited by Gardner D. Hiscox and
originally published in 1907):

Birch water, which has many cosmetic applications, espe-

cially as a hair wash, or an ingredient in hair washes, may be
prepared as follows:

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 I.—Alcohol, 96 percent 3,500 parts
Water…………………… 700 parts
Potash Soap…………. 200 parts
Glycerine……………… 150 parts
Oil of birch buds…… 50 parts
Essence of Spring
Flowers……………….. 100 parts
Chlorophyll, quantity suf icient to color.

Mix the water with 700 parts of the alcohol, and in the mix-
ture dissolve the soap. Add the essence of spring lowers and
birch oil to the remainder of the alcohol, mix well, and to the
mixture add, little by little and with constant agitation, the
soap mixture. Finally, add the glycerin, mix thoroughly and
set aside for 8 days, ilter and color the iltrate with chloro-
phyll, to which is added a little tincture of saffron. To use,
add an equal volume of water to produce a lather. (Hiscox,
1907, p.244).

These types of remedies are well documented in thousands of

Domestic Receipt Books, which are a great example of how
knowledge has traditionally been passed down by European
Americans. Some slave medicinal cures observed by White doc-
tors found their way into Medical Journals, many times without
attribution. It is the written word that records the inner work-
ings of European American culture(s) and carries on their legacy
to subsequent generations.
For Grannies of African or Indian ancestry, their cures were
(and I suggest still are) passed down via oral tradition and tend
to consist of fewer ingredients; sometimes, only one or two
herbs and/or roots made into a tea or poultice. As an example, I
was taught by a Native American elder that a traditional way to

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

make shampoo is to dig up some roots of the Yucca plant, clean
them with water to be free of dirt and chop the roots into small
pieces. The chopped roots are placed in a mason jar which is
illed almost to the top with clean water and then closed. The
root–water mixture is allowed to sit overnight. The next day, the
jar is shaken well and natural suds and foam form. Voila! Moth-
er Earth’s shampoo made with two simple ingredients-yucca
root and water—and with little effort, save for digging up the
roots which, admittedly, does require some degree of physical
exertion.
Interestingly, Native Americans also utilized birch water in
the making of shampoo. According to Turner (1998), “The
Secwepemc used a tonic of birch leaves, steeped in water as a
shampoo and mixed birch leaves, children’s urine and alkali clay
from certain lakes to make soap for washing the skin” (Turner,
1998, p. 153).
There appears to be two major schools of thought as to why
there is such a difference in preparation of various remedies.
One school of thought, and seems to me to be the predominant
thought among lay people, is that slaves (Africans, as well as In-
dians) had less time for the preparation and gathering of the in-
gredients required for more complex remedies (Cotton, 1997).
On the other hand, slave remedies and Indian remedies were
not necessarily simpler due to lack of access to ingredients; in-
deed, they had access to many plants, herbs and roots all around
them. In addition, they had a much broader understanding and
knowledge of the medicinal use of plants, herbs and roots as
medicines than their White counterparts, and were often con-
sulted and observed by White doctors concerning the treatment
of a variety of conditions (Fett, 2002). Thus, the second school
of thought suggests that because slaves had a greater under-

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

standing of the medicinal properties of plants, they knew that a
given condition needed only one or two plants to effect a cure.
This second explanation potentially changes the academic intel-
lectual landscape with regards to Africans and Indians who have
historically been considered less intelligent and more primitive
than their colonizers. Seen through the appropriate sociocultur-
al lens and in the context of (the theory of) multiple intelligenc-
es, we observe a specialized and sophisticated knowledge and
intelligence worthy of the title root doctor.
Here is a sampling of some of the simple remedies prescribed
by grannies of African and/or Indian descent across the South.

• To cure a gum boil or canker sore, chew on sassafras bark

three times a day.
• To relieve a toothache, boil a handful of Red Oak bark in a
quart of water and while still very hot apply to the affected
tooth but do not swallow. Spit it out. Relief is said to be very
quick.
• To stop vomiting, make a tea of peach tree leaves and drink.
It is said to be effective even for nausea and vomiting during
pregnancy.
• To remove corns, take some willow bark and burn it to ash.
Mix with a little vinegar and apply to the affected area.
• To cure pin worms, chop up some fresh garlic very ine and
put on a piece of bread and butter and eat it. Like cold garlic
bread without the salt.
• For indigestion chew on a piece of ginseng root. If this fails to
work, chop up some of the root and let it steep in hot water
to make a tea and drink.
• To cure hiccoughs, put a few drops of oil of anise in a tea-
spoonful of sugar and take it.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

 And so our mothers
and grandmothers have, more
often than not anonymously,
handed on the creative spark,
the seed of the lower they
themselves never hoped to see -
or like a sealed letter they could
not plainly read.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.

References
Cotton, S. M. (1997). Bodies of Knowledge: The In luence of
Slaves on the Antebellum Medical Community
Fett, S, M. (2002). Working Cures: Health, Health and Power on
Southern Slave Plantations. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of
North Carolina Press,
Hamel, P. B. and Chiltoskey, M. U. (1975). Cherokee Plants and
Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. Sylva, NC: Herald Publishing
Co.
Hazzard-Donald, K. (2013). Mojo Workin’ The Old African
American Hoodoo System. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois
Press.
Turner, N. J. (1998). Plant Technology of First Peoples in Brit-
ish Columbia. UBC Press: Vancouver. pp 153-156.

www.creolemoon.com

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All Rights reserved worldwide.