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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
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 Seas 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.
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.
See all Editorial Reviews
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 Seas 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.
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.
See all Editorial Reviews
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