Henry Clay Bruce who was a African abolitionist and writer, recorded his experience of slaves on a plantation inΒ VirginiaΒ hired a conjurer to prevent slaveholders from selling them to plantations in theΒ Deep South. Louis Hughes, an enslaved man who lived on plantations in Tennessee and Mississippi, had a mojo bag he carried to prevent slaveholders from whipping him. The mojo bag Hughes carried on him was called a "voodoo bag," by the slaves in the area.
Former slave and abolitionistΒ Henry BibbΒ wrote in his autobiographyΒ Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by HimselfΒ that he sought the help of several conjurers when he was enslaved. Bibb went to the conjurers (Hoodoo doctors) and hoped the charms provided to him from the conjure doctors would prevent slaveholders from whipping and beating him. The conjurers provided Bibb with conjure powders to sprinkle around the bed of the slaveholder, put conjure powders in the slaveholder's shoes, and carry a bitter root and other charms on him for his protection against slaveholders.
