The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic

This enlightening cultural history of “conjure” from political philosopher Stewart (The Politics of Black Joy) tracks the magical folk tradition practiced by Black women in America from slavery to the present day. As Stewart explains, conjure is “a mix of spiritual beliefs, herbal rituals, and therapeutic practices” brought to America by enslaved Africans and shaped by Black “conjure women” over centuries. Among Stewart’s aims is to demonstrate that conjure has had a wide-ranging and unacknowledged impact on American culture, including everyday products like Vicks VapoRub, an herbal recipe stolen from an enslaved woman by a former master, and the indigo used to create blue jeans, cultivated and popularized by conjure women (indigo was used not just for dyeing textiles but as a birth control method to help prevent enslaved women being impregnated by their masters). As the narrative spans from excavating archetypes like the “mammy” and the “voodoo queen” to historical figures like Marie Laveau, a 19th-century New Orleans herbalist and midwife who would help her clients outwit men, it can grow repetitive, though this has an air of intentionality (images of knotting and weaving are most often repeated). Above all, this succeeds as giving readers the feeling that they’re being let in on an ancient secret. It’s a delight. (July)