Haley Newlin’s Reviews > The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic > Status Update
Haley Newlin
is 45% done
When the U.S. occupied Haiti, soldiers were ordered to take voodoo dolls and other spiritual relics. They reported these spiritual practices as “savage” making incredibly false claims of cannibalism and raising the dead (aka zombies), and then upheld these fears as the reason why Jim Crow and the occupation of Haiti was essential. These falsities made their way into American film — the birth of the zombie
— Oct 05, 2026 08:46AM
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Haley’s Previous Updates
Haley Newlin
is 61% done
Cotton roots could be taken to perform an abortion. Taken early in a pregnancy cotton roots would coax the cervix to open early and push out the fetus. Using cotton to cause abortions was like a form of poetic justice. Cotton that enticed slave masters to put pressure on women’s and girl’s “reproductive labor” also gave these women a way to assert a sliver of bodily autonomy
— Nov 09, 2026 07:32AM
Haley Newlin
is 54% done
Cotton and wool replaced indigo as the primary cash crop of plantations and slaveholders at the turn of the 19th century
— Nov 09, 2026 06:39AM
Haley Newlin
is 46% done
“Anything that threatened white supremacy, anything that represented Black freedom and independence, was seen as evil by our oppressors”
Black conjurers continued on despite the ridicule and mockery
— Oct 05, 2026 08:48AM
Black conjurers continued on despite the ridicule and mockery
Haley Newlin
is 34% done
“A tool of oppression can be transformed into a weapon of rebellion.”
— Oct 05, 2026 07:26AM
Haley Newlin
is 2% done
The Story of Ọ̀ṣun and the Council of Male Orishas is incredible.
The absence of women = destruction of the earth
— Sep 24, 2026 07:22AM
The absence of women = destruction of the earth