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In Alabama slave narratives, it was documented former slaves used graveyard dirt to escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. Freedom seekers rubbed graveyard dirt on the bottom of their feet or put graveyard dirt in their tracks to prevent slave catcher's dogs from tracking their scent. Former slave Ruby Tartt from Alabama, said there was a conjurer who could "Hoodoo the dogs." An enslaved conjurer could conjure confusion in the slave catcher's dogs which prevented whites from catching runaway slaves. In other narratives, slaves made a jack ball to know if a slave would be whipped or not. Slaves chewed and spit the juices of roots near their enslavers secretly to calm the emotions of the slaveholders which prevented whippings. Slaves relied on conjurers to prevent whippings and being sold further South