This week’s blog post was focused on text analysis, so I decided to choose the North American Slave Database to pose a research question.
What was the purpose of the so-called “conjure” that some enslaved people practiced? was it for religious purposes or a strategy to strike fear in the enslavers?
I choose this because I had no previous knowledge of this topic and even had to research conjure because even though I had a feeling it had to do with haunting or witchcraft I didn’t know how it was related to slavery. This was interesting because I’ve heard of witchcraft and the Salem witch trials, but never in the slavery context. I quickly realized that these different practices were only labeled conjure by Europeans. To answer my research question, I used the section marked Conjure and choose two documents that related to the topic. The first was Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb (1849) pg. 25-27, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881) pg.133-134. These two documents were then put into Voyant, and the following graphs were generated.
This text analysis an okay job of answering my research question; as you can see above prevent, and believe are some of the most common words. It is hard to understand the scope of these words and what context are they being used. Other words are also commonly used, which don’t pertain to my question. After further research and reading through the sources, I determined that the purpose of “Conjure” was to help people believe they had power over their masters and use these magical powers to prevent flogging. The conjures had certain beliefs about remedies and abilities, and these religious practices helped resistance and rebellion.
Voyant and other text analysis tools are useful when determining if the source is closely related to your question. They also can show the frequency and relation of the words to the topic. However, these tools provide no context to the words and only show how many times they are used. For example, prevent, which was the most commonly used in the documents I chose, can have many different uses and so you have to ask the question, prevent what? Without reading the source, I wouldn’t have been able to realistically answered my question. Voyant is a cool program that you can use many different functions to show the data, so I believe that I will use it in the future to begin research even with some of the disadvantages.
I really like how your research question focuses on a specific term and its representation within text sources– this is a great method for text analysis! I completely agree that negative-leaning terms like conjure, magic (sometimes), and witchcraft were white cultural constructions deigned to “other” individuals and communities as abnormal. Even when we look at the Salem Witchcraft Trials, or the Spanish Inquisition, we see the dangers of hysteria and fear around magic, spells, curses, etc. as being constructed. Knowing this, as you acknowledged, helps us view the text analysis results with a different perspective in mind. I appreciate your reflections about the benefits and disadvantages of text analysis, as well as the importance of also practicing a “close reading” of your sources for context.
I wonder if when using the word “conjure” which means to ‘call upon (a spirit or ghost) to appear, by means of a magic ritual, that the slave of that period were using it look for signs of freedom. I have this belief that the slave man and woman were conjuring upon different spirits and/or Gods because of the uneasiness they had with Christianity. Slave masters believed that exposing their slaves to Christianity, it would boos their work habits, self discipline, and grace to the Lord. That slavery was a uplifting experience when in reality it was the complete opposite. This is why I believe they were calling upon other spirits and Gods because the ‘Christian God” did not free them from their bondage. As well as the fact that the slaves had a uneasiness because their slave masters had a deef faith with Christianity.