Intro: What is Conjuring?
The term conjuring is used by people living in Southern Appalachia (including North Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia) to describe a practice of folk healing done by members of their remote communities. In this use, it does not relate to any type of demonic or evil activity as has been portrayed by several motion pictures that use the same term. Instead, it is a term casually used for well meaning spiritual healing that has been passed down through generations for hundreds of years. Furthermore, conjuring is not the same folk healing practiced by using herbs, plants, and other natural elements. While that type of home remedy healing is prevalent in Appalachia, it is completely separate from conjuring, which involves nothing tangible. Conjuring is a supernatural practice.
My research on conjuring in Southern Appalachia is directed at taking a scholarly approach to preserving information on this tradition and leaving an accessible record of it for generations to come. I have continued to use the word “conjuring,” even though it can cause some initial confusion and misunderstanding, because it is the word used by the people who have done it and have had it done for them for centuries.
Background: How I got involved.
In the summer of 2014, I worked part-time in my Nanny’s (grandmother) beauty shop shampooing, rinsing and sweeping hair for her in this tiny little building beside her house in rural Cherokee County, Georgia (about 1 hour north of Atlanta). The elderly women who came to get their hair done had been her customers for up to 40 years, and they had relationships similar those portrayed in the movie Steel Magnolias. I was fascinated when they talked about various people getting their illnesses conjured by people and asked many questions about the subject. My curiosity continued for a couple of years until I graduated from high school; I had continued to ask and learn more about conjuring whenever the subject came up. With an interest in medicine and the Appalachian culture in which I grew up, I wanted to pursue doing serious research on the subject.
Planning to attend a world class liberal arts university, I hesitantly attended a Shadow Day for admitted students at the Ivan Allen College at Georgia Tech. The program included comments from Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Dr. John Tone, who introduced himself as a specialist and teacher in the History of Medicine and Disease. After the program, I spoke with him about my interest in conjuring and conducting research about it. He encouraged me to consider Georgia Tech and opened my eyes to the unique opportunities of studying liberal arts at a technical university. After some deliberation and the offer of a paid research internship with Associate Dean Tone, I became a student at Georgia Tech. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made because of the tremendous support and guidance I have received that allowed me to accomplish every goal I had dreamed for this research project.
Research Subjects: Personal Interviews and Historical Documents
- Fred and Diane Heard Harmon Ball Ground, Georgia Interviewed on Oct. 6 , 2016
These are my grandparents (Papa and Nanny). They are the first source from which I learned anything about conjuring. They both grew up on farms in rural communities near where they now live. My Papa grew up on a farm in the Salacoa Valley, and my Nanny grew up in the Keithsburg Community. Neither of them are conjurers, but both have stories of being healed by conjurers and know several people who still practice it. They believe fully that it works and that it is a gift from God given to people worthy of it. Their attitude about the subject is very respectful, but casual, because it was so commonplace when they were growing up.
Fred talked about having a man “buy his wart” from him when he was a young adult. He said that he was sitting by the fire on a hunting trip whittling at a wart on his hand that he could not get to go away, and the man said, “can I buy it from you?” Fred was a little taken aback, but said yes, and the man gave him a coin for it. He told Fred not to think about the wart again, and it went away within about a week. He also recalled a story of a woman who lived down the road from him in Beasley’s Gap who could conjure poison oak. He said that one of his relatives even had a couple show up with their child who was covered in poison oak and very ill. They had come from “far away” to find this woman who could make it go away, and the woman was not home because she was visiting these relatives of Fred’s. The woman took the boy around back of Fred’s relatives’ house for a few minutes and came back with him. He said the people claimed their son’s poison oak went away after that.
Diane also had a wart bought from her at the grocery store after she became an adult. It was bothersome because it was on her finger and got caught in people’s hair since she was a hair stylist. She said she had tried Compound W and other medications, but could not get rid of it. She ran into someone at the store whom she knew, and he bought it from her. It went away. Diane also told a story about Ben Ghorley’s brother, Sam Ghorley, who lived less than two miles from her parents’ house. She said her brother’s son had a terrible case of “thrash” (actually “thrush”- a painful autoimmune rash inside the mouth and throat of babies). Diane said when her mother, the baby’s grandmother, saw his mouth, she immediately took him down the road to Mr. Ghorley to have it conjured. Diane said it went away afterward. Diane went on to mention that she believes education has played a role in the dying out of conjuring, a connection no other person I talked to had made.
- Earl Townsend Fairmount, Georgia Interviewed on Nov. 18, 2016
After my Papa (Fred Harmon) recounted the story of having his wart bought, he told me that the man who did it is still alive and lives about 30 minutes away. I asked my Papa to try to get in touch with him and see if I could interview him. He was able to set up an interview, and the man’s name is Earl Townsend. Mr. Townsend lived on a remote road on the top of a mountain with only one way in and out. He and his wife, both elderly, were very open and friendly toward my Papa and me when we went to their home for the interview.
Mr. Townsend said he is the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which is believed to give a person special gifts and powers. It is based on a passage in the Bible. He described how he could stop a person from bleeding, both internally and externally. He told a story about when he was a younger man and his boss’s daughter was in the hospital with internal bleeding from an accident. Doctors had been unable make it stop, but Mr. Townsend had stopped bleeding before and knew he could do it, so he asked his boss her name. He said all he needs is the person’s name, and he does not even have to be in the person’s presence. He conjured her bleeding without ever going to the hospital, and his boss said it saved her life. He also told a story about a woman at his church who had a large, painful boil of some kind on her leg, and he didn’t know if he could conjure it the same way he did warts or not, but he tried buying it from her, and it went away.
He said he is able to pass on his gift to someone he thinks is worthy and will use it properly.
- Bryson Wilkins Suches, Georgia Interviewed in January 2017
My parents found Mr. Wilkins because they knew him as a customer in their business in Lumpkin County, Georgia. When they mentioned to him about my research, he told them that his father Howard Carter Wilkins, now deceased, had been a conjurer and that he had many memories of it. When I interviewed Mr. Wilkins, he brought photos of his father. He was very eager to share the stories and took pride in being able to help document the legacy of his father.
He told a story about a welder who came to their home in the middle of the night with his eyes severely burned, screaming in pain. His father conjured the fire from the man’s eyes, and before he left, the man was well. He also told a story about a car accident in the county. Mr. Wilkins and his father and mother were driving and saw the accident happen. It was before 911 services and paramedics were available in the area. Mr. Wilkins said as soon as they saw the accident, his mother turned to his father and said, “Go!” His father went and found a girl in the accident bleeding profusely and began conjuring her blood to stop. He rode with her in the ambulance when it arrived, and when they got to the hospital, he asked the doctor, “Do you believe?” The doctor knew what he meant and said, “Yes,” and Mr. Wilkins’s father handed her off to the doctor. The doctor came out a while later and said that Mr. Wilkins’s father saved her life and that she would have bled to death at the scene of the accident if he hadn’t been there.
Mr. Wilkins said that he does not have the gift to conjure because his dad could not pass it to him because they were related, but that his dad did pass it on before he died. When his father was near death in the hospital, he told Bryson to go find a woman who believed. Bryson found a nurse who came to his father’s bedside. Bryson left the room, and his father passed on his healing gift to this woman. Bryson said she was crying when she came out of the room. His father soon died in Bryson’s arms.
- Janice Black Dahlonega, Georgia Interviewed in January 2017
I met Janice Black for an interview after Bryson Wilkins introduced me to her. He knew that she had an interest in conjuring. Janice, who is younger than the other subjects, appears to be in her forties. She is a conjurer who had recently acquired the gift from a man at her church. She had asked him some questions about the practice, and he told her that they should both pray about it and then talk later. She said that she prayed about it, and got her answer, and that he told her he had prayed about it and had his answer. Their answers were that he should pass the gift to conjure or heal to her, and he did. She was very secretive and protective about any specific information regarding what he did to give her the gift and how to use to use the gift in any way. Janice believes that if anyone “who is not supposed to know” about the gift is told, then she will lose it herself.
A very religious person, Janice’s attitude revealed a great interest in learning more about faith healing and also expressed that she has been learning how to do reflexology. She told a story about buying a wart from a woman who works with her without the woman ever knowing. Janice said she just had seen the woman with the wart and had given the woman one dollar, but did not tell her what it was for. She only said, “Just take it.” Janice reported that the wart disappeared after she completed the conjuring.
Janice was very concerned that the practice of this type of faith healing is dying out, and that is one reason she wanted to help carry it on. She feels that younger generations are too skeptical about it and too busy with modern life to be interested in it.
5) Ellis Taylor and Barbara Woodall Rabun County, GA Interviewed on Sept. 9, 2017
Ellis and Barbara are brother and sister. I traveled to Rabun County, Georgia, to interview Barbara about conjuring and faith healing. I learned about her from a book she authored titled Not My Mountain Anymore, which is a first-hand account of growing up in the changing times of Appalachia. When I arrived at her house, she took me in her golf cart to her brother’s house where I was able to talk to both of them. Ms. Woodall is a well-known participant of the first class of the Foxfire Program and speaks about the dying out of her culture as more “outsiders” move in. I thought she might provide an interesting perspective on my research, and I was not disappointed. Along with writing books, she was a member of the 1966 Foxfire Class.
They were the first people I had talked to in this area. Ellis was recovering from a stroke, where he actually was “dead” for 23 minutes before doctors revived him. Being a very religious and spiritual person, he told me about the bright light and love he felt on his short trip to heaven. Ellis grew up around conjuring and thought nothing of it growing up. He told many stories of babies getting the thrush cured by his father. They were similar to stories I had heard from other people I had interviewed. His father would go in a private area and breathe or spit in the baby’s mouth to give it the bacteria it needed.
Unlike my other subjects, Barbara and Ellis were very open and willing to divulge any details or secrets they knew about how the healing was done. Ellis also mentioned stories where animals were healed; this was something I had not heard before. He told of warts being bought off of cows and a mule that had bleeding stopped. When I asked them if they thought the practice was dying out, they both responded that they believe when their generation dies, it will be lost forever. They think children are “too busy playing on them phones” to pay attention to things and people around them. They also mentioned that on their current road, they don’t know a majority of their neighbors, something unheard of when they were growing up. People from all over and all cultures have moved into these communities and don’t understand the native culture or practices. This leads to a massive miscommunication and misconceptions of faith healing. It is seen as evil or backwards instead of spiritual or kind. Ellis also mentioned that it was never done for money. Healers were always discreet, humble, and kind, a trend I have noticed in all of my interviews. After the filming of the movie Deliverance, the locals of Rabun County were not open to outsiders. They had been taken advantage of and portrayed as savages and “inbreds” by the movie. Their trust had been betrayed, something they would never get over. This led to locals shutting themselves off from the outside world and the people it brought with it. They were so afraid of being taken advantage of or slandered that way again, that they no longer shared their culture with people outside of it. Thus, leading to the dwindling population of people in the area that believe and practice.
- Professor/Author Ron Rash Cullowhee, N.C. Interviewed on Nov. 14, 2017
I interviewed Professor Rash in his office at Western Carolina University for about one hour. We discussed the presence of the supernatural, including conjuring, in his novels. He is a popular Appalachian writer of novels, poems and short stories, and one of the most critically acclaimed authors working in the United States right now. With multiple works on the New York Times Best Sellers List, he has also won numerous prestigious awards for authors. His books are translated into 16 languages, and he travels nationally and internationally speaking about his books and about Appalachia. I wanted his perspective because of references to conjuring, superstition, folk remedies, granny women, pagan influences, and Christian faith in his writing.
I asked him why he chooses to include so much of these aspects of Appalachian culture in his writing because my research had only included first and second hand personal interviews, no information about conjuring’s presence in fiction or other art forms. He said that he believes that this aspect of the Appalachian culture is very important because it demonstrates the great depth and richness of the culture. He said that these beliefs and practices reflect a people who are capable of deep intuition and power, much like their rich language uses metaphors and colloquialisms to reflect great intellect and creative capacity. He also said he definitely believes in conjuring and has seen it work himself. Growing up in North Carolina, he had stories of people buying warts. One story he recounted talked about a man who could conjure warts talking to another man who had warts on both hands, but didn’t believe in conjuring. The conjurer said, “which hand do you want me to take them off of?” and they chose one hand. The conjurer removed them from that hand, and they went away, but stayed on the other hand. Rash told the story as plain fact and had no reservations about his belief in this and other Appalachian traditions. In one of his novels, he describes someone curing Thrush in a person’s mouth, one of the types of healing in my research.
When I asked him how he thought it worked and what the origin of such powers could be, he said, “It’s just in the world. I believe there are many things in the world that we cannot see.” He said that cultures that are especially in tune with nature have abilities and knowledge that others might not have. He compared it to a native tribe of South Americans he had read about who have developed the ability to see a particular star that no one else can see. Several of his works include Granny Women, which are old women in a rural community that people go to for help. Help with an ailment or sickness, help with relationship problems, help birthing a baby, and help with crops, among other things. This introduces the idea of witches, which some would equate a Granny Woman to. Pagan superstitions like killing a black snake and draping it over a fence to bring rain and using “the signs” (astrology) to plant crops and explain human and animal behavior are also essential parts of Rash’s fiction. Once when interviewed by the Poetry Foundation about this practice, Rash responded that “one of his favorite themes, Rash said, is the meeting of paganism and Christianity, such as when an Appalachian Christian farmer kills ‘black snakes…to make it rain.”
Certainly, Rash’s use of supernatural aspects of Appalachian culture captures the art of conjuring in a different genre, but provides additional proof of its existence and importance.
Angel Poem/ Bible Verse
After my interview, Barbara Woodall told me to check in the first foxfire book, which was published in 1967, for stories on faith healing. I found many interviews with healers and witnesses that were exactly like the people I had been talking to. Most remarkably, I found a poem talking about an angel of fire and an angel of frost. This poem was said to be repeated when talking the fire out of someone. I also found a Bible verse, Ezekial 16:6, which is supposed to be said when stopping bleeding.
The people in the Foxfire book were very open and willing to divulge secrets. Much like Barbara and Ellis, they didn’t believe risking its extinction to keep it a secret. One of the healers had even written a letter to Foxfire explaining the angel poem and bible verse in the “hopes that it will save someone’s life someday.” This was the first time I had seen, written down, the way the healing was done. Until this point, it was always a mysterious process done in a back room away from prying eyes. The very same poem and Bible verse were also written down for my Nanny by her friend Margaret, who is a healer. Margaret had refused to talk to me the year before, because she didn’t not have the right “feeling” about it. However, when she was gravely ill and thought she was going to die without passing her gift on to someone, she wrote a note for my Nanny. On that piece of paper, were the angel poem and the Bible verse from the Foxfire book. Almost verbatim they were, the Foxfire book from 1967 and the note from Margaret from 2017.
Ball Ground and Rabun County are an hour and a half away from each other, both very remote, isolated communities. This connection established uniformity and continuity to what I thought was a disjointed practice. While there are details and certain differences in rules and practices, the underlying “source” of power is the exact same. People that had no knowledge or connection to each other had somehow recited the same words when healing people.
Secrecy
Conjuring is a very sensitive, private subject for most who practice it. Healers generally are hesitant to talk to people about their gifts or how they acquired them. Many people refused to talk to me because they did not want the information public. This secrecy has developed as a way to protect conjuring from “outsiders.” Healers and those who believe in it fear that people who are not familiar with conjuring will judge it as devil work or witchcraft. It was not always this way; when my grandparents were young, it was an openly talked about and known practice. However, as the Appalachian Mountains became less isolated and people began migrating there from other regions, conjuring was seen as dark and evil by some of those who did not understand it. However, some newcomers have expressed curiosity about the practice if they hear of it. Over the years the natives began to hide their gifts and beliefs from those they couldn’t “trust,” which meant people that weren’t from the region.
This is a phenomenon as old as migration itself. When new populations enter previously isolated and homogeneous areas, the native culture often feels the need to protect its traditions and customs from the outsiders.
Ms. Woodall said she calls the tourists coming to the mountains “terrorists” instead. She
has a particularly strong mistrust and distaste for outsiders who have wrongly portrayed and judged Appalachian culture as ignorant and depraved. As a native of Rabun County, she was a witness to the filming of the movie Deliverance in the 1970’s, which portrayed the natives of the area as inbred barbarians. She recalls the film crew coming to her town and telling the locals that they were making a movie that they wanted the locals to star in. The people of Rabun County were flattered and willingly participated, only to see in the final product the insulting and degrading story the movie told. This lead to a general, harsh mistrust and defensiveness of the locals when people from the outside began trying to penetrate their culture.
The general consensus of conjuring outside the native community is that it is witchcraft, and that healers worship the devil. This is extremely offensive and hurtful to the people who believe and practice, because they draw their power from their faith in Christianity and the Bible and only use their gifts to help people, never to hurt. As a result, they do not talk about it. They do not practice it as openly as they used to, and consequently are not passing it down to the next generation. The secrecy they think so vital to its protection is leading to its extinction.
This secrecy has also largely contributed to the lack of record or evidence of conjuring’s very existence. They have passed it down orally from generation to generation for centuries, and have neglected to document it in any tangible way. They fear that artifacts will fall into the wrong hands or be misinterpreted, so they do not document it at all. The lack of documentation and resistance to talk or practice it openly have all but erased conjuring from the face of history. This is why my research is so crucial to the preservation of this practice; not only does so little record exist, but none of it is from a scholarly perspective.
Thrush
“Thrush” is a yeast infection in a baby’s mouth that prevents it from being able to breastfeed. If it is a serious case, there will even be clear blisters in an around the baby’s mouth. It is very painful for both the child and the mother. Thrush is one of the more common illnesses that can be conjured. All of my interview subjects knew of people who either conjured or were conjured for thrush. It can be treated by prescription medicines now, but before these communities had access to medicine and doctors, they had to have a way to heal their babies so they could feed. Parents would bring their child to a man or woman who could conjure them, and then the healer would take the child into a back room or out of sight of people and heal the baby.
Ms. Taylor and her brother Ellis told how thrush was conjured. They said that the healer would take their own saliva and put it in the baby’s mouth. This would restore the “helpful” bacteria the baby’s mouth was missing. This same procedure was written in the Foxfire book and told to me by my grandparents.
Stopping Blood
Stopping Blood is a less common gift to have. Mr. Townsend was the only person I interviewed who was able to stop blood. However, Bryson Wilkins talked about his father doing it when I interviewed him. There are slight differences in the rules of stopping blood, depending on the person you talk to. Mr. Townsend claimed that he needed only the name of the person to be able to stop their bleeding, and didn’t need to be in the same place as them. However, Bryson’s father, Mr. Wilkins, who could stop bleeding had to be with the person to heal them. He could not do it from a remote location, and he actually had to lay hands on the person. Both claimed to be able to heal internal and external bleeding, but neither of them mentioned how they did it. Mr. Townsend said he did not know how he did it; he just did it. Bryson said he never got close enough to see or hear what his father did. The Foxfire book and my Nanny’s friend Margaret both claimed you needed to read a certain Bible verse, Ezekial 16:6, to stop the bleeding.
The verse reads:
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy own blood, Live.
These discrepancies are most likely due to geographic location because healers in the same area generally have the same “rules.” Of those who use the Bible verse, the verses they use are exactly the same, yet not all use it. Mr. Townsend didn’t use anything, or even know how he healed people, and Bryson never was able to figure out his father’s source of power.
Drawing Fire
One of the more graphic injuries to have conjured is a burn, or as the healers call it “drawing fire.” In some regions of North Georgia, near Dahlonega, people who can draw fire are called Fire Talkers, like Bryson’s father. Drawing Fire does not alter the natural healing process, but merely takes the pain away from a burn. It will still scab, or scar like a normal wound, but it will not hurt. Bryson recalled his father blowing on the wound while waving his hand one or two inches above it, but he could never discern what his father mumbled as he did it. Everyone else said that they had never actually seen it being done. They had either heard word of it, or had known someone who did it or had it done, but never witnessed it themselves. However, the Foxfire book talks extensively about drawing fire and how it is done. The healers interviewed in the book tell of a poem about angels of fire and angels of ice that must be recited while waving your hands above the burn. This was the very same poem my Nanny’s friend who could draw fire wrote down for her on the piece of paper next to the stopping blood Bible verse.
The poem reads:
Two little angels came down from heaven,
One brought fire and one brought frost.
Come out fire and go in frost, so help me God. (Say this three times as fast as you can)
Buying Warts
The most common of gifts to have is the ability to buy warts. This is mostly done by men who give you a nickel or dime, or any money of small value in exchange for the wart you have. This was a very well-known cure for a wart when my grandparents were growing up, often it was the preferred method of getting rid of warts. It was much easier to have someone buy it from you than pay for medicine like Compound W, or in my Papa’s case, whittle it away with a knife. It is still the most common ailment to have conjured, and the people I interviewed were very open to talking about it; there wasn’t the same sense of protection and secrecy that surround other topics. There was no indication of a special poem, prayer, or Bible verse associated with this gift.
Mr. Townsend has bought more warts in his lifetime than he could recount. Often people who don’t know about drawing fire or stopping blood know about having your warts bought or stories of people buying them. Janice Black also bought warts, but she claimed that the person could not know you were buying it from them or it would not work. The majority of people I interviewed did not agree that the person had to be oblivious to what you were doing for it to work, and most times, the healer offered openly to buy it from the person. Very rarely did you seek someone out to buy your wart, they would just offer if they saw you had one.
Poison Oak
Poison Oak is a common ailment of Appalachian children in the summertime. Children run around outside all day, often barefoot and with little clothing in the woods surrounding where they live. Being outside with no protection in the woods creates the perfect situation for serious cases of poison oak. If your child had a terrible case, you would take them to someone who could conjure it. Poison oak is a miserable ailment to have, and if it is severe enough can cause serious inflammation and scarring, or even life-threatening allergic reactions. People didn’t have easy access to a doctor or ointment, so having it conjured was their best chance at relief. People would drive miles and miles to track down someone with the gift, and often would show up at their house unannounced at all hours seeking help like my Papa recalls from his childhood. None of my subjects knew how it was done, and very few had witnessed it. It was always done away from prying eyes in the back room, and there was little information in the Foxfire book about how to conjure poison oak. As far as I have been able to deduce, there is no Bible verse or poem that assists in healing poison oak. It is one of the least common gifts for someone to have, as it is no longer necessary to be able to conjure something you can put a simple ointment on.
Scholarly Research, Government Documents & Granny Women
In the course of my research, I searched for scholarly, academic databases for journal articles or books regarding conjuring as I have studied it. I found no mention of the specific types of healing involved, but did find information about faith healing in Appalachia done by preachers and ministers who would pray over people at home or in church for any type of illness. This is better described as prayer healing in a general sense. That anyone can call on God to heal sickness through prayer. I also found mention of old women or witches who would heal people by using potions or herbs. However, none of the academic databases I searched had information about the type of conjuring I am studying.
Later, I visited the United States Federal Archives facility in Jonesboro, Georgia, after contacting an archivist there who pulled government documents for my research. A majority of the items were Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reports and photographs from the 1930’s of the Appalachian region around where the Authority was working and building its dam. Among the reports, were several accounts of conjuring by the local people, including curing Thrush and warts. The documents also discussed people drawing fire out of burn victims.
Many of the documents discussed Granny Women or Granny Witches, who were old women in rural communities that people went to for help with everything from failing crops and sick livestock to relationship problems. Most Granny Women or Granny Witches were also midwives who helped birth babies in the area and who knew the uses of native plants for herbal remedies. When the documents used the term “Granny Woman” or “Granny Witch,” it was in a positive context of them helping people, but there were also references to “witches” (the word used alone) that were associated with acts of evil or mischief. Granny Women or Granny Witches were reported to “conjure” illnesses, but in a different context than the faith healing in my research. However, sociologists from University of Tennessee, who authored most of these TVA documents, suggested that some aspects of both practices bled over into each other, which could explain how the word “conjure” came to be used to describe the faith healing practices of my research subjects.
Dying Out
Dahlonega, Waleska, Canton, Fairmount, Rabun County, all historically remote and isolated small towns in the mountains, are undergoing a massive demographic change. As the City of Atlanta expands and people are moving to the area from all over the world, these once small towns are being swallowed by the suburbanization of the Atlanta area. With these new people come doctors, hospitals, new cultures, and new people who have no knowledge of the native people they now call their neighbors.
The native people have access to quick medical care, the Internet, and the outside world at large; no longer are they isolated with people just like them. This results in a sense of protection of their own culture, that they must defend it from outsiders, less it be misinterpreted or misunderstood. It is better to not speak of it at all than tell someone who might think it to be dark or evil. Because of this, it is disappearing altogether. As the children of the native population grow up, move away, go to college, and then often never return home, there is no one for the elderly population to pass their traditions on to. There is no need to teach people to stop bleeding or draw fire if there is a modern medical hospital only five miles away. There is no need for someone to conjure poison oak if you can drive down the road to the drug store and purchase Hydrocortisone. My Papa has witnessed this evolution first hand. When he was born in 1945, he recalled that to get to a doctor it would take 30 minutes and to a hospital over an hour, in which case if you were bleeding severely would not be quick enough. There was a need for people to stop bleeding because if they didn’t, people would die. He also talked about the emergence of disposable income when the cotton mill came to Canton, Georgia, the county seat of his area. Before then people and their families worked on their own farms to produce food to survive. They did not work to have extra money, only money to get by. This meant that medical care was only an emergency, not preventative. There was no such thing as going to the doctor for a check-up, you only went if you were very ill, and even if you did, rarely could you afford the medication prescribed. Only after the accumulation of wealth that came with industrialization and development of the area, were people able to do preventative care. He believes this contributed largely to the decline of conjuring, as well. Some of the areas where my interview subjects live have already fully undergone this suburbanization, and some are going through it now, but they all blame it for the loss of their culture.
Documentary & Future
I conducted the interviews my freshman year at Georgia Tech, and compiled them into a 15-minute documentary I that presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in April of 2017. My research won first place for Oral Presentation at the symposium. With the help of my friend and film maker, Molly Hill, I am conducting more interviews and am making a full- length documentary. I am continuing my research in the hopes of eventually turning my work into a book. As interesting subjects and artifacts present themselves, I will include them in my body of work.