High John the Conqueror Root

A Mobile worker told Hyatt that John de Conker was “de biggest seller ah got.” He would sell it to anybody, even a judge, if the judge was fool enough to buy it (Hyatt Vol. 1, introduction · Mobile, Ala. · informant 655).

That says a lot. High John was the root everyone wanted, for nearly everything.

What it is

A hard, dark, knobbly root, traditionally a morning glory relative (Ipomoea jalapa or Ipomoea purga). It is named for High John, the folk hero who could not be beaten.

Informants call it John de Conker, John the Conquer, Johnny the Conqueror and High John.

For jobs and money

• Rub John the Conqueror and Seven Sisters root together in your hands as you walk up and ask the man for a job (Hyatt 730 · Fayetteville, N.C. · informant 1425).
• Sewn in flannel and used to find money (Hyatt 585 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 1012).
• Kept in the pocket with Jockey Club perfume and your policy numbers, and slept on, to dream winning numbers (Hyatt 734).

Male and female roots

One informant explained that if a woman did the harm, you work with the female root, and if a man did it, the male root (Hyatt 731).

The idea of paired roots runs through the volumes, alongside Adam and Eve root.

In hands

• With lodestone, graveyard dirt, dragon’s blood and Adam and Eve root, sewn in red flannel for protection (Hyatt 586 · Charleston, S.C. · informant 509).
• With a lodestone and a silver dime, bound with white thread passed round nine times (Hyatt 737).
• Carried with a black cat bone by two uncles who “wus lak dat” (Hyatt 296).

As medicine

• Boiled in whiskey with sulphur and given three times a day (Hyatt 698).
• Made into a foot bath, taken three times before sunset (Hyatt 685).

How it’s worked today

• High John is still the root of power, mastery and success: for job hunting, court, gambling, sexual strength and for men’s and women’s confidence alike.
• A whole root is carried and fed with whiskey or High John oil.
• Chips go into mojo bags, and the root is soaked in oil or alcohol to make High John the Conqueror oil.
• Many workers keep one root on the altar as the strength behind everything else.

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 for reference.