On Thursday, February 12, Dr Lindsey Stewart, a Black feminist philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at University of Memphis, presented a virtual author talk. She discussed her book, The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic, during an hour long lecture titled, “Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, And 400 Years Of Black Women’s Magic.” The virtual author talk was presented through Library Speakers Consortium, a nationwide library offering that gives readers an exclusive look into authors and their work.

The Conjuring of America that tells the stories of Negro Mammies of slavery, Voodoo Queens and Blues Women of Reconstruction, as well as Granny Midwives and textile weavers of the Jim Crow era. The book also details the art of “conjure,” and how it has influenced modern medicine and consumerism.

Brandon Adler, host of Library Speakers Consortium, welcomed everyone to the event by giving a brief intro to Stewart. He then invited the guest author to offer her own brief description of The Conjuring of America.

“The Conjuring of America is like a 400-year history of the magic that Black women have been practicing in the United States, and I’m trying to tell the story of how they used that magic to fight back against the racism and sexism they faced in pretty much every generation that we’ve been here,” said Stewart, who added she also looks at how the struggle for freedom and emancipation has shaped American culture.

The book begins with stories of slavery, moves into the Antebellum period, advances into the Reconstruction era immediately after Emancipation, and then focuses on Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. Each era is examined through the lens of different “conjure women,” as Stewart said, such as women who were healers on plantations and cared for those who were sick, and mermaids in the Antebellum period.

Adler pointed out that Stewart writes the book with first-person plural pronouns, such as “we,” “ours,” and “us.” He asked if that was a strategy or a “natural choice” for Stewart.

“It’s kind of a combination of a choice that I was pushed towards because of the sort of books that I have read and studied for decades,” Stewart replied. She noted a lot of Black feminist writers in the 70s and 80s used this inclusive writing style as well, and, moreover, she wanted to write a story where she, herself, “fit in.”

Stewart added, “I also wanted to make sure that people across the country who read this book also feel like it’s part of their story. It was important for me to make sure that people saw that the story of Black women in America, the magic that we practiced for over 400 years, has impacted your very life as an American.”

Adler asked Stewart which parts of this book are part of her own personal history. Stewart said she grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and heard stories of Marie Laveau, “famed Voodoo Queen.” Stewart’s great-grandmother, however, was a “candy lady.” Candy ladies, she explained, while not specific to Black communities, were women in history who sold candy to children or made treats for the neighborhood kids, providing a form of child care. With this in mind, Stewart wanted to examine how her great-grandmother fit into this story, too.

Vicks VapoRub

During the program, Adler asked Stewart questions that had been submitted from attendees. One asked Stewart how she defines magic and if she believes it is different from other methods of worship and conjure.

Stewart said “magic” is very broad — each country and culture has their own version of magic. Conjure, she said, is one “particular tradition of magic.” Conjure is a mixture of West African religious traditions, Christianity, and local practices of the enslaved that were used for healing. The “vibrant mix” has changed over generations, but it was used to “manage luck.” It was used to build resilience to help the enslaved “bounce back” when bad things happened. Adler said it is centered as a “survival strategy.”

While discussing what Stewart hopes readers will learn about conjure, she said, “It’s a common theme … no matter how dire things are, it’s always possible to drum up a little bit of power, and sometimes that power comes in really unexpected places. That’s been the history of conjure that I’ve been able to uncover.”

Adler then asked Stewart to talk about the recontextualization of the invention of Vicks VapoRub, a common medicinal project rooted in Black women’s medicinal knowledge. Stewart said this was the most rewarding part of the book for her as she got to look at primary sources, including interviews with people who were previously enslaved that were conducted in the 1930s.

As Stewart combed through these interviews, she found certain women who were well-known healers kept popping up. Stewart knew that the “invention” of Vicks VapoRub shows up “a little bit after slavery.” This spurred an investigation for Stewart where she looked at the original recipe of the product and applications to see if she could draw any similarities between it and the herbs Black women used on plantations. As Stewart continued her research, she found that Lunsford Richardson, the name behind Vicks VapoRub, was using the same herbs Black women were using.

Adler said the cultural thread Stewart is pulling goes all the way back to ancient West African myths, including mermaids. Adler asked how these myths, including figures like Oshun and Mami Wata, become entwined with conjure.

Oshun is a goddess from the Yoruba region of West Africa. She is the goddess of fertility and love. While Stewart was researching pop culture, she became interested in the phrase “Black girl magic,” which led her to Oshun.

“A lot of the mythology around Oshun carries a lot of the values that … Black women in America live by, but also a lot of the crafts that Black women are renowned for in this country. Everything from healing, to cooking, to midwifery, those are things that Oshun is known to be skilled at,” Stewart said.

Lessons From Mermaids

Adler asked Stewart to talk a little bit about Halle Bailey’s portrayal of Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2023) and how it relates to West African culture and spirituality. Stewart said there were so many “think pieces” coming out at that time that pointed out mermaid myths in West African mythology.

Stewart asked what mermaids mean to people in West Africa and people in enslaved communities: “One of the major links to figure that out was Mami Wata, who is a mermaid figure who kind of showed up in the 16th Century. She is worshipped in the Americas … [and] West Africa. She is beloved across the African diaspora. She is also known, like Oshun, for being a figure that can bring comfort and love and really good fortune to those who do right by her, but she can also cause a lot of vengeance and destruction if you do harm to communities.”

Stewart said that mermaids are her favorite because of their power and vengeance. She said that mermaids remind people that “change is possible.” Mermaids and the myths surrounding them have many elements of transformation, which can be empowering for many marginalized individuals.

“It’s important to remember that there can be transformation, there can be change, especially when I know a lot of us feel just kind of stuck right now,” Stewart said.

Stewart also briefly talked about the history of Aunt Jemima and how the character was a revolutionary figure Pearl Milling Company tried to “domesticate,” as Stewart said.

The full discussion is available at chboothlibrary.org under the Book Discussions page. Click on the Online Author Talks subhead to view this and previous discussions. There are previews for upcoming author talks, including “Smithson’s Gamble: The Incredible History Behind the World’s Largest Museum with Smithsonian Curator Emeritus Tom Crouch” on February 24 and “Humor, Heart, and Reflective Rural Stories with Michael Perry” on March 4.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.