Table of Contents From the Shadows--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Conjure in the Old South---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Slave Parents---------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 Enlightenment Trail Begins--------------------------------------------------------------------17 Enemy of El Ole Satan Rises----------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Conjureman – Churchman--------------------------------------------------------------------33 Herb Remedies---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Early Manhood ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Hard Twenty Years ------------------------------------------------------------------------44 Full Time Practice ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------54 Moves on Highway-------------------------------------------------------------------------58 Favorable Image----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67 Investigated---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 79 Straighten Folks With the Law----------------------------------------------------------------81 No Problems too Difficult-------------------------------------------------------------------- 85 Mends Broken Marriages-------------------------------------------------------------------- 95 Conjure Miracles------------------------------------------------------------------------- 102 Goofer Practice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------110 Credited With Crossing  --------------------------------------------------------------------114 Farmer – Businessman ------------------------------------------------------------------ 117 Doctor’s Eagles Play Ball------------------------------------------------------------------- 121 Weakness With Strength -----------------------------------------------------------------125 The Angels Come---------------------------------------------------------------------------130 Reflections---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  134 Supplemental Sources---------------------------------------------------------------------- 136

Reflections

Why was Doctor James Spurgeon Jordan an extraordinary success in conjure practice? You should have a rather clear idea at this point.

In review—More than a quarter of a century this question stood in the fore among people of his native Hertford County. Most of the answers were vague and unsatisfactory. Imaginations often illuminated the uncertainties and made him a much storied and fabled man.

The parade of people to his door and the large flow of money through his hands stood out prominently as a spectacular result of his power without revealing the fullness of its reason.

So when the weather wasn’t too dry or wet, hot or cold; the crops not thirsting or drowning; or daily events too attention compelling, one could always strike up a conversation on Doctor Jordan and hedge towards the answer in a contest as exciting as a good game of checkers at a country store.

Dr. L. M. Futrell of Murfreesboro, the conjure doctor’s personal physician over forty years, explains accurately yet in a general way, “Jim was a man with a strong mind” capable of setting minds of some people straight.

To be sure, Doctor Jordan’s strong mind set him apart from the ordinary conjure doctor; but that was not all. While long years of experience made him sensitive to the patient’s physical distress and relief need the same as other diagnosticians, the achievement that added stature was attainment of extraordinary understanding of stresses that disturb a person’s spiritual life. He came to know the elusive “inner soul,” its longing, fears and cares … of the Negro race in particular, white people almost as well.

The doctor strengthened his image of greatness by standing the public at bay with suspense. One of his many admirers was afraid “he mought know something I don’t.”

His understanding came slowly and was born of hard travail. He was past fifty years of age before he began to attain success in his profession.

Personal and cultural backgrounds were favorable. He had intelligent ex-slave parents and was exposed to ante-bellum folk lore while it was still fearfully realistic. As a young man he lived recklessly and then settled down to raising a big hungry-family by hard physical labor. Conjure relatives acquainted him with their art while we was obtaining wisdom that only “belonging to” and long years of experience teach.

Although he eventually prospered and spent money lavishly he was not basically mercenary. He had learned to win a living by hard work. He was capable of empathy for his patients, and medical doctors confirm he was conscientious in his practice.

Some of his more remarkable faith healing cases indicate he reached his patient’s mind by exercising compassion to console his disturbed spirit. He knew how to administer solace when he heard sick hearts cry.

Some cases required his skill at treating with root and herb remedies and patent medicines. He proved his high ethics by recommending appropriate treatment to those he could not help.

Another conjure man may never be quite like him. The physical and cultural forces that gave him strength were dying long before his death.

Appreciation is extended to the many people who contributed to Doctor Jordan’s story. They have revealed that folk lore continues to be born where there is a mystery that resists solution. Also they made possible inclusion of some of the customs and beliefs that unquestionably helped shape the doctor’s life.

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Supplemental Sources

 

An Account of the Inhabitants and Commodities in Virginia, 1587—Thomas Hariot.

Lawson’s History of North Carolina—John Lawson.

Moore’s History of Hertford County—John Wheeler Moore.

The Colonial and State Political History of Hertford County, N.C.—Benj. B. Winborne.

Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro—N. N. Puckett.

Negro Folk Rhymes—T. W. Talley.

The Negro in Africa and America—A. J. Tillinghast.

Slave Songs of the United States—W. F. Allen.

Uncle Remus—J. C. Harris.

Social History of the American Negro—B. Brawley.

Tales from Guilford County, N.C.—E. C. Parsons.

Folk Lore of the Southern States—T. P. Cross.

The Book of Witches—O. M. Heuffer.

The Albemarle Enquirer, 1877–78.

The Patron and Gleaner.

The Roanoke-Chowan Times.

The Hertford County Herald.

The Daily Roanoke-Chowan News.

The Raleigh Times.

The News and Observer.

The Norfolk Virginian Pilot.

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Source: F. Roy Johnson • The Fabled Doctor Jim Jordan • © Copyright 1963 •Johnson Publishing Co.• Murfreesboro, N. C.

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You might check out the work of F. Roy Johnson (1902-1988), an amateur historian and folklorist from Murfreesboro, N.C. He gathered stories from residents of Tidewater Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. His self-published books include The Tuscaroras, Vols. 1 and 2; Tales from Old Carolina; Legends and Myths of North Carolina's Roanoke-Chowan Area; The Fabled Doctor Jim Jordan; and The Nat Turner Story. His papers and some tape-recorded interviews are available at the North Carolina State Archives.

Scot French
University of Virginia

Source: http://www.h-net.org/~south/archives/threads/folk.html

Johnson, F. Roy. The Fabled Dr. Jim Jordan, A Story of Conjure. Johnson Publishing Co., 1963; revised ed. 1968. [Note: Author was a European-American small-town journalist who wrote and published books about the South, including several on Native American and African-American culture (he published the Bernice Harris book cited above, for instance); this book is in essence a lengthy obituary for the locally famed African-American root doctor Jim  Jordan of Como, North Carolina (practicing circa 1905-1962), it contains contributions from his family members, several of whom were also professional root workers; it includes the family's herb lists, as well as a list of occult books Jim Jordan owned, consulted, and sold in the general store / conjure shop he operated from 1927-1962.]

Source: http://www.southern-spirits.com/hoodoo-bibliography.html

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posted 14 May 2006

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updated 23 June 2008