Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies, Revised Edition [Paperback]

Faith Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2011

Hoodoo Medicine is a unique record of nearly lost African-American folk culture. It documents herbal medicines used for centuries, from the 1600s until recent decades, by the slaves and later their freed descendants, in the South Carolina Sea Islands. The Sea Island people, also called the Gullah, were unusually isolated from other slave groups by the creeks and marshes of the Low Country. They maintained strong African influences on their speech, social customs, and beliefs, long after other American blacks had lost this connection. Likewise, their folk medicine mixed medicines that originated in Africa with cures learned from the American Indians and European settlers. Hoodoo Medicine is a window into Gullah traditions, which in recent years have been threatened by the migration of families, the invasion of the Sea Islands by suburban developers, and the gradual death of the elder generation. More than that, it captures folk practices that lasted longer in the Sea Islands than elsewhere, but were once widespread throughout African-American communities of the South.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

My first trip to the South Carolina Sea Islands, in 1971, was life changing. Having grown up in Michigan, I was excited about the opportunity to learn more about southern black culture. Up to that time, I had never spent any time in the south. When I got to the Sea Islands I was shocked by the poverty; at that time, telephones, cars, and even running water were still scarce. I was stunned by some of the more remote backwoods settlements, where very little had changed since slavery. But I was most deeply affected by the rich, fertile beauty of the Islands and by the strength and integrity of the families I met - natural wealth that belied the widespread material poverty. I soon discovered that the Sea Islands were also as abundant in culture - ghost stories, animal tales, the Gullah language, plant knowledge - as they were in animal and plant life. These first experiences among the Gullah people led me to a lifelong interest in African American history and culture.

From the Back Cover

The Sea Island the southeastern Atlantic coast are known for their tropical beauty and for the Gullah people, African-Americans who descended from slavery to develop a distinctive dialect and rich folk heritage. As late as 1960, many of these islands were still unreachable except by boat, thus allowing Gullah culture to remain largely intact. Faith Mitchell, a medical anthropologist, lived with the Gullah people in the1970s to learn firsthand the folk medicine still practiced by its oldest citizens. Today, this knowledge has been nearly lost.

Hoodoo Medicine describes in rare detail the medicinal plants and herbs historically used by the Gullah people. Part I includes a brief history of the Sea Islands, and the source for African-American folk medicine. Part II is a directory of all the medicinal roots, herbs and plants, detailing their use in the Gullah culture as well as Native American and Euro-American uses. Included are more than 50 drawings of various medicinal plants.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 113 pages
• Publisher: Summerhouse Press; Revised edition (November 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887714332
• ISBN-13: 978-1887714334
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique guide, rich with illustration and explanation, April 1, 2002

By 

Maureen (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies, Revised Edition (Paperback)

HOODOO MEDICINE offers a wonderful blend of a history of the Gullah people and their herbal medicines, explicit description of each herb including many wonderful illustrations by Naomi Steinfeld that makes it easy to identify several of the plants, with an amazing cover image by the talented artist, Jonathan Green. Carefully documented, this book is not just the usual guide of 'how to use this' or that herb, but includes historical background -- not only a chronological description of the way this special island culture developed over time, but fascinating ancedotes of how the Gullah people used (and managed to save) their knowledge so that it's now available to everyone thanks to this book and the efforts of Faith Mitchlell and Naomi Steininfeld...This is a model for how all should be written, presented, and preserved that shines light on the fact these remedies reflect not only the special understanding of the people who used these 'good' plants and the way they can help, but that there are plants unique to regional ecospheres, and how lucky we are whenever someone is still among us to point them out! Faith Mitchell includes a poem inspired during the time lived on the island that captures the real heart of the book for me -- the island itself speaking about why She shares these gifts with those there.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book provides readers with a vital examination of black, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies, Revised Edition (Paperback)

Using the Sea Islands as a foundation, Mictchell provides readers with a fascinating and vital examination of Black folk medicine. Hoodoo Medicine also details cures used in the Sea Islands and the book includes a dreictory ofmedicinal roots and herbs. With a burgeoning interest in "traditonal" practices, I hope this book will find its way into the hands of professionals and lay people eager to support healing and wellness.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost voices heard again, December 12, 2000

By 

LB Flander (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies, Revised Edition (Paperback)

Dr. Mitchell reclaims the lost voices and gestures of African and Caribbean people who came to the US and made American life so rich. This description of their detailed local knowledge revitalises the past. We are grateful for Amazon.com's vast holdings which make such small-press treasures as Hoodoo Medicine available to researchers and lay people around the world.