Ghosts, Haunts and the Dead

“They jumps right up on yo’ an’ dey ketch yo'”. That is how one St. Petersburg informant described a dead man coming back in the night (Hyatt 535 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 977).

In Hyatt’s interviews the dead are not gone. They come back, they are sent, they are paid, they are fought off and they are kept out. This entry is about the dead themselves: the haunts, the ghosts and the spirits that Hyatt’s informants lived alongside.

What it is

Informants used several words for the same thing: ghost, hant or ha’nt, dead spirit, or simply the spirit.

Hyatt himself called the spirit of the dead the most powerful spirit in the whole system. Graveyard dirt works because the dead are in it. A grave is a place where someone can still be reached.

A Waycross man said the returning dead take shape again, coming back in the form of a skeleton (Hyatt 13 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1143).

What Hyatt’s informants said

A spirit could come back on its own. The St. Petersburg informant said that if a person died cruel to you, his spirit would return through a dream and ride you, pressing you until you could not call out. You could hear him come in and hit the floor, but you could not see him (Hyatt 535 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 977).

A spirit could also be sent. In Jacksonville a woman whose son was killed on the railroad went every night to a grave, dug a hole at its head, put her hands in and gave “prayers fer him to come back alive and haunt dis man.” The man she blamed, a night watchman, began falling asleep on the switch, had accident after accident, then stepped into a hole in the yard and was never seen again (Hyatt 84 · Jacksonville, Fla. · informant 562).

In Wilmington a worker walked three times round a grave without looking back, threw the dirt in the air and said, “Go, spirit, an’ worry ’em up, an’ bring ’em back, In de Name of de Lord.” Twice if the person was in town, nine nights if they were away (Hyatt 106 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 223).

Laying the dead

If you had wronged someone who died, you paid them off. An Elizabeth City informant said to put a piece of money in the coffin, so the spirit would have to stay behind and guard it (Hyatt 11123 · Elizabeth City, N. Car. · informant 438).

A Charleston informant said that when a dead mother’s spirit kept worrying you, you took dirt from her own grave and sprinkled it round the door (Hyatt 1306 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 523).

Keeping haunts out

The household defences were many and practical:

• Burning chicken feathers and sulphur in a pan at night (Hyatt 1176 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1182).
• Firing a gun loaded with powder only, no shot, round the house in the morning (Hyatt 1324 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1404).
• Sweeping the house out backward for nine mornings to keep out the ghost (Hyatt 1065 · Jacksonville, Fla. · informant 553).
• A penny nailed down at the front door, or a horseshoe over it (Hyatt 12577 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 991).
• An open pocketknife carried in the pocket, so no spirit could harm you (Hyatt 1364 · Florence, S. Car. · informant 1286).
• A new, never-used plank laid across the doorway with a low oil lamp burning near it (Hyatt 535 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 977).

A Fayetteville professional went further and spoke of conquering haunts outright, using spring water with graveyard dust in it and sulphur burned on its surface (Hyatt 638 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1395).

The dead and the hunt

The dead were part of the landscape. A St. Petersburg man said it was useless to go possum hunting on a Friday night, because the dogs would chase haunts instead of game, something he had heard all his life in north Florida and south Georgia (Hyatt 236 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 989).

The dead could also pursue the living for their crimes. A Florence informant said that a killer who stepped over the body of the man he had killed could not be tracked by bloodhounds. Hyatt read the step as a sign of the cross made against the avenging spirit of the dead (Hyatt 7271 · Florence, S. Car. · informant 1291).

In their own words

“he or she cannot come back to hant you. Must stay and guard the money.”

(Hyatt 11123 · Elizabeth City, N. Car. · informant 438)

“If yo’ have a lotta ghosts an’ things, or yore house is hanted”

(Hyatt 1176 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1182)

“de spirit keep worrying you”

(Hyatt 1306 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 523)

“We use dis heah spring watah wit de graveyard dust in it.”

(Hyatt 638 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1395)

How it’s worked today

Rootworkers still treat the dead as the strongest working partners there are. Ancestors are kept with photographs, water, food, liquor and tobacco, and spoken to directly.

Graveyard work still begins with payment: coins, liquor or other offerings left at the grave before dirt is taken. Restless spirits are still swept out, smoked out with sulphur and kept out with salt, iron and protective washes at the door.

The idea of sending the dead against an enemy also continues in crossing and revenge work, built on the same understanding Hyatt’s informants had: the dead can be asked, paid and directed.

Learn the work

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Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations from Hyatt’s informants for reference.