Knowledge Library
The Red Clay Archive
What the elders knew, kept.
Tag: #primary-sources
3 entries
Hoodoo History
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938
The Born in Slavery collection is one of the most important primary-source archives for studying the lives, beliefs, customs, language, healing traditions, folklore and spiritual worldview of formerly enslaved African Americans. Created through the Federal Writers’ Project during the 1930s, the collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and approximately 500 photographs. Interviews were collected across numerous states, including Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The Library of Congress For students of Hoodoo, these narratives provide historical context for understanding the communities in which African American folk spiritual traditions were preserved and transmitted.
Folklore
Harry Middleton Hyatt: Hoodoo–Conjuration–Witchcraft–Rootwork
Harry Middleton Hyatt's Hoodoo–Conjuration–Witchcraft–Rootwork is an enormous collection of African American folk-magic testimony gathered primarily through interviews in the American South. The complete work spans five volumes and approximately 4,766 pages. Hyatt's fieldwork was conducted principally between 1936 and 1940 across states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The collection includes thousands of recorded beliefs and workings as well as extended interviews with people identified as root doctors, conjurers and Hoodoo practitioners. Arcane Archive For serious Hoodoo research, Hyatt is valuable because much of the material preserves the words and reported practices of African American informants living during the early twentieth century.
Hoodoo History
Zora Neale Hurston: Mules and Men
Published in 1935, Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men is a foundational work of African American folklore and an important resource for studying Hoodoo and Black Southern folk culture. Hurston was both a celebrated Black writer and a trained anthropologist. She returned to Black communities in Florida and traveled through the South collecting stories, songs, sermons, folklore and spiritual traditions. Unlike many early collections of African American folklore created entirely through an outsider's gaze, Hurston entered these communities with cultural familiarity and documented Black folk culture through both anthropological study and lived participation. Mules and Men explores African American folklore as well as Hoodoo traditions encountered during Hurston's fieldwork.