Ancestral Connections

This theme explores the tradition of conjure, or hoodoo, in the south during the antebellum period and the link the women in the Jackson family have with one another through space and time, seemingly as a result of practicing this magic. Josephine and her mother, Winnie, both had the ability to cause things to happen, or conjure things into being, through the use of their minds. Winnie used her magic in the Revisioners meetings, in which the other slaves would enumerate their “woes” (122) and she would do her best to solve them. In this same timeline (1855), Josephine began experimenting and found that she could conjure a dollar for Sally. She then, upon Sally's request, helped Tom's wife get pregnant and carry her baby to term, despite the threat of a miscarriage. In the present-day timeline, Ava recalls finding slips of paper in her mother's bedroom...