Kinston, July 29—Magistrate Ken Foscue, at the courthouse, had a conjure case come before him yesterday and threw it out after a vain attempt to convince the plaintiff that there had been no actual conjuration. The plaintiff, a negress, asked the justice if he was “the law.” He was only a “limb” of it, he assured her. She narrated a series of physical mishaps due to the alleged “conjury.” The magistrate refused to formally try the matter.
Jesse T. Heath, clerk of Superior court, told the justice of the power of conjuration. Years ago when there was no legal white supremacy, a negress of vicious repute was a tenant on his farm. He wanted to get rid of her but was afraid to order her to vacate. Arson, he had reason to believe, might follow, with destruction of part of his property.
Nearby resided a negro politician who could be county commissioner any old time he chose to but would have no political honor less than “delegate to a congressional convention,” at which he could control the vote, as he freely admitted. Mr. Heath appealed to him in his difficulty. The man agreed to fix the matter for him.
A bottle was filled with broken hairpins, bits of bark, maypop blossoms and a piece of string, and subtly placed under the front steps of the house occupied by the woman. She discovered it and immediately left the farm with her household furnishings. “She swore she had felt ‘them steps drawin’ her’ for three weeks,” Mr. Heath stated.
From The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, N.C., Aug. 1, 1922.
No comments:
Post a Comment