On Aug 24, 2006, at 3:23 AM, Ian Evans wrote:

> Dear HistArchers,
>
> I'm curious to know if you're aware of finds of concealed objects (ie
> charms) in houses and other buildings in North America.
> The custom is widespread in England and also occurred in Australia.
> The most common items are shoes which are general found in sealed  
> voids,
> either in the subfloor area or associated with the hearth and the  
> chimney.
> These were thought to act as lures, decoying evil spirits and  
> witches away
> from the people who lived in or used the building.

Responding utterly from personal experience, the practice is not  
limited to African-Americans. My Great-Grandfather bought a small  
house in James City County, VA in 1926 from a lady whose descendants  
had built it in 1803. The original builders were small land-owners,  
and never owned slaves.

After I acquired the house, the roof needed replacement. In doing so,  
the hunt club (another good Southern tradition) found under the roof  
and above the never opened lath and plaster walls, a very worn brogue  
type shoe, part of a woman's lace-up semi-dress boot and a brown felt  
hat. All of this material dated to the very late 19th to first  
quarter 20th century. My GGrandfather was of the poor as a church  
mouse persuasion and may have re-roofed the house, but more like it  
was the family he acquired it from. So either the original non-slave  
owning VA family or the immigrant Wisconsin to VA family put the  
stuff there. Nobody in my family remembered the house being re-roofed  
and the objects were a mystery to them as to who did it and what the  
reasons were.

Again from personal understanding, hoodoo is a Southern vernacular  
phrase used by both poor whites and blacks. Creedence Clearwater  
Revival had the phrase in one of their songs (Born on a Bayou?).  
Notions of whether it was derogatory are probably more a reflection  
of perceived class than race in origin and use.

Lyle Browning
>