Hello and welcome back my coco puffs, to another rendition of my SPOOKTOBER series for the Halloween season. I hope you all are doing well and are ready to get spookified because today’s topic is all about African American urban legends, myths, superstitions, and overall scary stories. insert spooky music.
Now, before we get started, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t drop a little knowledge on you. Most of the examples I’ll be using today originate from the Gullah community. The Gullah Geechee are descendants of African slaves from plantations found on the lower Atlantic Coast. You can read more on them here: https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/the-gullah-geechee/
Happy Gullah Geechee Cultural/Hoodoo Hertiage Month!
Superstitions
To start off, I’d like to preface this blog with a little superstition appetizer. Some of the superstitions that you may have grown up hearing have a deep seeded, Southern history, directly linked to slavery. I found a piece of a digital collection titled, Superstitions of the Negro (WPA Federal Writers’ Project on African American Life in South Carolina) . Originally created between 1936-37 by Laura L. Middleton, it is a compilation of African American superstitions obtained through personal interviews with Black people from Charleston, SC. Here are a few superstitions that are included in the pages:
If you hear a crow cough, sign of rain
If your ear burns, someone is talking about you
Kill a black cat, take it to the graveyard at midnight, and rub it on the wart. The wart will go.
If you see a dead man in the mirror, you will be unlucky for the remainder of your life (Lord forbid, but if this was to happen to me, I’d just die right there.)
If a man’s nose bleeds after he is dead, it is a sign of his having been killed
Read the rest here: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/wpafwp/id/2697
Folklore
Haints
A Haint is defined as a specific type of ghost or evil spirit from the Carolina coast.
It originates from the Gullah Geechee people.
Haint Blue: a specific hue of blue believed to ward off or confuse haints. In historic homes found in SC, you can find that their doors, or even the porch, has been painted in this color. There are several other practices that can be used to ward off these spirits including a bottle tree, counting tricks, and cleaning the house with sage or incense.
BooHags
Have you ever woken up tired despite having a full nights rest? You may have been ridden by a Boo Hag the night before. They are red, skinless creatures that kill and wear the skin of their victims to blend in with others. Similar to Succubi, they enter into your bedroom and sit on your chest to steal your breath and your energy. Ever heard the saying, “Don’t let the hag ride ya!” ? This is where the saying came from. Warning signs to alert you to the presence of one are 1) the air will get very damp and hot, 2) the air will smell rotten. Hags can be repelled by having a broom with many bristles in your room, having Haint Blue around, or using salt on their skinless bodies.
Here’s a story: https://www.americanfolklore.net/boo-hag/
Plat-Eyes
In Gullah culture, a Plat-eye is formerly a person who died and did not receive a proper burial or was buried carelessly.
In other instances, its someone who has unfinished business, wants to cause trouble, or wants to avenge their own death. They harass the people who failed to bury them properly. They have a single flat eye in the middle of their forehead and can shapeshift. They are sometimes confined to just their burial spots, but can be seen walking lonely roads in the shape of an animal, most commonly a dog. It can also appear as a simple mist, a cow, or a person with no head.
Legends
Big Liz
This tells the story of a slave woman named Big Liz. She is described as a “behemoth” who could carry two pigs under each arm by herself. She was believed to be a Yankee spy by her Master, who created a plan to get rid of her. He told her about a treasure chest he had gotten from the president for safekeeping and how he needed her help to bury. They traveled deep into the swamp, where she dug a large hole and dropped down into it to place the chest. When trying to come back out, the Master slit her throat with his sword, decapitating her. He returned home without incident, but was soon killed by her ghostly apparition in his backyard.
Legend has it that Big Liz can still be seen roaming the swamp on the anniversary of her death, still guarding the chest. Read the full story here: https://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/big_liz.html
Julia Brown
Julia was a Voodoo priestess in Frenier, Louisiana, where she worked as the town’s only doctor, or “healer” and local midwife. It is said that she liked to sit on the porch and sing eerie songs with her banjo, the most infamous being, “One day I’m going to die and take the whole town with me.” She formed a vendetta against the town as she thought they didn’t appreciate what she had done for them. The day after her funeral, a hurricane from the Caribbean swept through the town, killing almost the entire population and destroying even more homes.
Uncle Monday
Originally born in Africa, he was captured and brought to the Carolinas as an enslaved man. He managed to escape deeper into the South, eventually reaching Florida. There he met and befriended the local indigenous people, teaching them herbal magick. Legend says that he had the ability to shapeshift into an alligator and had command over them.
Here is a nice little YouTube video about some his stories.
Well, that’s all for this post. I’ll catch yall back here next Wednesday where I’ll be giving some costume recommendations and a playlist for those who like to throw parties. Scary right?
I hope you all have a wonderful week and don’t forget, I love you black woman (and man) !
Are there any examples that you know of that you’d like to share? Leave a comment!
Love, Minajhadore <3
One response to “SPOOKYSEASON, Blog 2: Black Legends, Myths, & Stories”
This is all very interesting information. Keep it coming!