The Conjuring of America
Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic
Will be published approx. on 20. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-1-5387-6951-5 (ISBN)
Description
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2025 BookRiot's Best Books of 2025 NPR's New Books to Read Ms. Magazine's Most Anticipated Feminist Book
A crucial telling of U.S. history centering the Black women whose magic gave rise to the rich tapestry of American culture, wellness, and spirituality that we see today-from Vicks VapoRub and Aunt Jemima's pancake mix, to the magic of Disney's The Little Mermaid (2023), and the all-American blue jean.
Emerging first on plantations in the American South, enslaved conjure women used their magic to treat illnesses. These women combined their ancestral spiritual beliefs from West Africa with local herbal rituals and therapeutic remedies to create conjure, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors and many of the modern-day staples we still enjoy.
In The Conjuring of America, Black feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart exposes this vital contour of American history. In the face of slavery, Negro Mammies fashioned a legacy of magic that begat herbal experts, fearsome water bearers, and powerful mojos-roles and traditions that for centuries have been passed down to respond to Black struggles in real time. And when Jim Crow was born, Granny Midwives and textile weavers leveled their techniques to protect our civil and reproductive rights, while Candy Ladies fed a generation of freedom crusaders.
Sourcing firsthand accounts the of enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun, and the wisdom of beloved Black women writers, Stewart proves indisputably that conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary. Above all, The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the magic Black women used to sow messages of rebellion, freedom, and hope.
A crucial telling of U.S. history centering the Black women whose magic gave rise to the rich tapestry of American culture, wellness, and spirituality that we see today-from Vicks VapoRub and Aunt Jemima's pancake mix, to the magic of Disney's The Little Mermaid (2023), and the all-American blue jean.
Emerging first on plantations in the American South, enslaved conjure women used their magic to treat illnesses. These women combined their ancestral spiritual beliefs from West Africa with local herbal rituals and therapeutic remedies to create conjure, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors and many of the modern-day staples we still enjoy.
In The Conjuring of America, Black feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart exposes this vital contour of American history. In the face of slavery, Negro Mammies fashioned a legacy of magic that begat herbal experts, fearsome water bearers, and powerful mojos-roles and traditions that for centuries have been passed down to respond to Black struggles in real time. And when Jim Crow was born, Granny Midwives and textile weavers leveled their techniques to protect our civil and reproductive rights, while Candy Ladies fed a generation of freedom crusaders.
Sourcing firsthand accounts the of enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun, and the wisdom of beloved Black women writers, Stewart proves indisputably that conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary. Above all, The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the magic Black women used to sow messages of rebellion, freedom, and hope.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Little, Brown & Company
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-5387-6951-5 (9781538769515)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lindsey Stewart is a Black feminist philosopher and an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of Memphis. She is the author of The Politics of Black Joy. Her work has been featured in Blavity, Signs, Hypatia, and the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, and sheholds a 2021 Michael Beaney Prize. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.