Voodoo

Voodoo is a religious practice thought to have been brought to the United States by Haitian slaves in the late 1700s, as part of the first major wave of immigration from Haiti during the Haitian Revolution, from 1791 to 1803. Throughout this period, over 15,000 people, including planters and slaves, settled in southern Louisiana, bringing with them the practices of Haitian voodoo, a mélange of West African traditions. Other émigrés (both voluntary and forced) from the Haitian Revolution settled in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. The origins of voodoo can be traced back to the West African countries of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, from the religious practices of vodun, the worship of ancestral spirits. The heritage of many slaves brought to Haiti was West African. Haitian voodoo is considered the birthplace of New World voodoo.

Voodoo is a blend of African beliefs and French Catholicism, combining practices from both traditions. In the United States, voodoo is concentrated in southern Louisiana and coastal South Carolina and Georgia, though it can be found throughout the United States. While it is primarily associated with descen-dents of African slaves, voodoo practices and beliefs have influenced both black and white communities and has a following of both black and white believers. New Orleans is considered the birthplace of voodoo in the United States, and indeed Louisiana voodoo is recognized as its own subcategory of voodoo.

There are many names for voodoo in the United States: vodun, hoodoo, conjure, vodu, and vodoun. In rural coastal Mississippi and Louisiana and in the rural Carolinas and Florida, hoodoo is more commonly practiced than voodoo. Hoodoo and voodoo are often confused, as their similarities are great. Both rely on conjures (the act of creating a spell by calling [Page 876]on the spirits); rootwork (use of roots in spells, particularly High John the Conqueror root, the most powerful root used to conjure); and mojos (called conjos in hoodoo), which are small bags containing important ingredients, such as herbs, hair, lizards, fingernails, and pieces of clothing or other objects worn or used by the person for whom the spell is directed. Mojos and conjos are the media through which spells are transmitted and are essential to both voodoo and hoodoo. The primary difference between voodoo and hoodoo is in the inclusion of Catholicism (found in voodoo) and Native American healing practices (found in hoodoo); in addition, hoodoo is practiced, for the most part, in rural areas only. Both, however, are rooted in the West African traditions of vodun.