|
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.
* * *
* *
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.
* * *
* *
Source: F. Roy Johnson • The Fabled Doctor
Jim Jordan • © Copyright 1963 •Johnson Publishing
Co.• Murfreesboro, N. C. * * *
* * 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
* *
* * *
posted 14 May 2006
* * *
* *
updated 23 June
2008 |
