Missing Witches - MW Aunt Caroline Dye - Here Am I, Take All My Troubles Away

00:00:00.000 If you want to support the Missing Witches Project, join the coven!

00:00:05.120 Find everything you need to know at missingwitches.com 1.00

00:00:08.760 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:12.140 Be a witch! Be a witch! Be a witch! Be a witch! Be a witch! Be a witch! 1.00

00:00:15.560 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:17.620 I'm going to Newport News just to see Aunt Caroline die. 1.00

00:00:21.880 She's a fortune-telling woman, oh lord, she don't tell no lie.

00:00:25.840 I'm going to Newport, New Jersey, A. Caroline Dine

00:00:32.760 I'm going to Newport, New Jersey, A. Caroline Dine

00:00:41.440 What you gonna ask, my boy? 1.00

00:00:45.100 She's a fortune-telling woman, oh Lord, and she don't tell no...

00:00:49.720 Hi, Coven. It's Amy, and if you know me, you know that in this house,

00:00:55.840 Music isn't background noise. It's not the soundtrack to life. It is life.

00:01:04.340 I often quote Kurt Vonnegut, who said that music was the only proof he needed of the existence of God.

00:01:11.420 My philosophy goes one step farther. Music is God.

00:01:18.860 So, when someone like me hears legendary bluesman Howlin' Wolf

00:01:24.700 belt out a gravelly list of names he's inviting to his wang-dang-doodle, 1.00

00:01:31.700 and that list includes a conjure woman, a hoodoo lady, 0.89

00:01:35.700 we pay attention.

00:01:38.500 When the name of a witch, who for the record would never have called herself that word,

00:01:43.440 shows up in dozens of songs sung by bluesmen from the genesis of the blues itself,

00:01:51.900 we know we've got to dig a little deeper.

00:01:54.020 Aunt Caroline Dye, whose legend encircled her town of Newport, Arkansas in a 400-mile diameter,

00:02:18.180 had become famous for her hoodoo, root work, conjure, psychic abilities to locate lost or 0.98

00:02:27.300 stolen goods, and predict the weather. Aunt Caroline made mojo bags. She used regular 0.99

00:02:34.020 playing cards to focus her concentration. She was born into slavery, but died rich and famous

00:02:43.380 and became, perhaps, the most notable hoodoo practitioner that Arkansas has ever known. 0.71

00:02:51.120 Her legacy preserved through the songified oral history of America in the blues.

00:03:06.260 But before we stray too far away from Howlin' Wolf's Wang Dang Doodle,

00:03:11.260 it's definitely worth mentioning, and yes, taking a long detour on these railroad tracks

00:03:17.080 from Tennessee to Arkansas, to mention that Ryan Coogler got the idea for his movie Sinners

00:03:23.580 while listening to Wang Dang Doodle. And the evidence of the inspiration is everywhere in

00:03:31.980 the film. The twins are named Smoke and Stack. Howlin' Wolf's most famous song is probably

00:03:39.740 Smokestack Lightning. One of the defining figures of the Mississippi Delta Blues Howlin' Wolf was

00:03:46.980 born in Mississippi and spent part of his early musical life around Clarksdale, where Sinners

00:03:55.120 is set. Professor Yvonne Chirot, who you may have heard on the Missing Witches podcast,

00:04:02.080 was a consultant for Sinners. In her book Black Magic, she wrote, quote,

00:04:07.180 The blues were the first commercially produced music to explicitly embrace the culture from which conjuring traditions emerged, end quote.

00:04:17.960 And she uses Aunt Caroline as an example when she writes, quote,

00:04:22.260 Blues performers revered figures from the traditions of conjuring, divination, and rootworking.

00:04:29.300 Aunt Caroline Dye was immortalized in a succession of popular recordings, end quote.

00:04:35.900 Reviewing the film, Sheldon Pierce wrote, quote,

00:04:38.880 And I haven't stopped thinking about one scene and quoting Annie since my first of many viewings.

00:04:55.240 You know, woman, I've been all over this world.

00:04:58.360 Cars, ships, trains.

00:05:05.460 I've seen men die ways I didn't even know was possible.

00:05:10.640 I ain't never saw no roots, no demons, no ghosts, no magic.

00:05:18.960 Just power.

00:05:21.600 And only money can give you that.

00:05:25.240 And for all that war and whatever the hells you've been doing in Chicago,

00:05:33.100 and you back here in front of me,

00:05:35.880 two arms, two legs, two eyes, and a brain that work,

00:05:39.940 how you know I ain't pray? 0.99

00:05:42.560 I work every route my grandmama taught me to keep you and that crazy brother. 0.92

00:05:46.740 You're safe every day since you've been gone.

00:05:49.200 smoke says he doesn't believe in annie's root work practice and people don't believe in my magic

00:05:59.480 in our witchcraft all of us either but we're still here aren't we and we witches can't

00:06:08.400 count out the possibility that we have our spell work to thank

00:06:13.000 And of course, the whole film

00:06:24.040 No spoilers, but come on, if you haven't seen Sinners yet, watch it today

00:06:28.460 Just like our Aunt Caroline

00:06:31.420 Sinners draws together the stories of hoodoo and the blues

00:06:36.160 Both portals between this world and the next

00:06:41.080 Wang Dang Doodle was originally written by Willie Dixon around 1930,

00:06:46.160 possibly based on his own lived experience.

00:06:49.800 Going to see Aunt Caroline die.

00:06:52.820 In The Conjuring of America, Mojo's Mermaid's Medicine and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic.

00:07:01.000 By the way, I'm loving this book.

00:07:03.540 Definitely pick it up if the subject interests you.

00:07:07.100 Lindsay Stewart wrote, quote,

00:07:09.080 If you were in trouble in the 1910s, you might take a trip on the Caroline Dye Special,

00:07:15.640 a train line that would take you near the house of Aunt Caroline Dye in Newport News, Arkansas,

00:07:21.100 a mere hundred miles from Memphis.

00:07:24.000 Once you de-boarded the train, you might ask others at the station,

00:07:28.440 do you know where Aunt Caroline Dye lives? 1.00

00:07:30.900 A little black girl off to the side would overhear and flag your attention. 1.00

00:07:35.960 She would offer to take you there for a quarter.

00:07:37.900 As you followed the little girl along to the big house

00:07:41.900 With a small house to one side

00:07:44.580 And a lot in the back where cows and chickens grazed

00:07:47.460 Your heart might sink

00:07:49.200 At the buggies and cars that lined the road

00:07:52.520 The sheer volume of people milling about Aunt Caroline Dye's yard

00:07:58.480 Meant that your wait for a consulting session would be mighty long

00:08:03.400 Perhaps the little girl would smile and point to the long tables with white cloths a few paces away 0.99

00:08:10.880 where you could get a good meal for just 35 cents as you waited.

00:08:15.240 Fried chicken, biscuits, buttermilk if you wanted it, or sweet milk.

00:08:20.380 All you could eat or drink.

00:08:22.560 There was not much else to do as you waited your turn to visit with the woman 1.00

00:08:26.920 who newspapers called the worst woman in the world. 1.00

00:08:32.680 Aunt Caroline Dye was one of the most famous Conjurewomen in the Mid-South during the 20th century. 1.00

00:08:39.100 She was born into slavery around 1843. 0.95

00:08:43.140 Though she never charged for her services, people still gave her money for a job well done.

00:08:49.620 By the end of her life, she had acquired a tidy fortune amounting probably to $100,000 upon her death, about $1.5 million today.

00:08:59.800 this she had done as a wealthy landowner and rental property entrepreneur, even though she

00:09:07.180 was unable to read or write, end quote. And I gotta stop here for a moment to revisit Harriet Tubman,

00:09:15.860 who also could not read or write, thanks to a history of enslavement that tried to force Harriet

00:09:21.980 and Caroline away from education and from freedom? I'll say again, so many people I know have

00:09:31.540 convinced themselves that they aren't smart enough or educated enough to be a powerful witch,

00:09:37.220 a powerful activist, a powerful human. Now, imagine if Harriet Tubman had thought the same.

00:09:51.980 Ain't got a lie and die, she told me

00:09:55.020 Son, you don't have to live so rough

00:09:57.720 Ain't got a lie and die, she told me

00:10:03.580 Son, you don't have to live so rough

00:10:06.600 I'm gonna pick you up, Emojo

00:10:12.020 Oh, Lord, so you can stretch your stuff

00:10:15.220 I wanna stretch your stuff

00:10:17.360 The Memphis Jug Band sang the Aunt Caroline Dye blues.

00:10:24.600 Aunt Caroline Dye, she told me, son, you don't have to live so rough.

00:10:29.680 Aunt Caroline Dye, she told me, son, you don't have to live so rough.

00:10:34.900 I'm going to fix you up a mojo, oh Lord, so you can strut your stuff.

00:10:39.200 Go on, strut your stuff.

00:10:41.380 and this is a relationship we see again and again music is magic it's a place where we can put our

00:10:52.220 suffering and turn it into something worth holding on to a place where we can trade stories without

00:10:59.300 words hoodoo and the blues grew from the same soil the african american communities of the south

00:11:09.860 where West and Central African traditions, Christianity, folklore, work songs, spirituals, and lived experience

00:11:17.180 intertwined with the musicians' and mojo-makers' deep need to wrench power from the hands that sought to oppress them.

00:11:28.420 Yvonne Chirot wrote, quote,

00:11:30.140 The blues articulated blacks' experience of alienation, victimization, and loss,

00:11:36.540 and, as such, like Conjure, became existential appeals for control in an uncontrollable universe. 0.78

00:11:45.360 Blues lyrics gave voice to suffering by describing both personal and collective afflictions.

00:11:52.660 While the blues most assuredly embodies mythologies of evil,

00:11:58.500 they were also attentive to the ways of addressing the affliction by immediate practical means.

00:12:04.820 End quote. As cultural historian Albert Murray explains, quote, the blues affirm life and

00:12:11.680 humanity itself in the very process of confronting failures and existential absurdities. The spirit

00:12:19.680 of the blues moves in the opposite direction from self-pity and self-hatred. End quote.

00:12:26.020 And we feel this in all magic.

00:12:31.800 We witches confront existential absurdities and use our witchcraft to turn away from self-pity and self-hatred toward empowerment.

00:12:44.120 For black folks in America, hoodoo suggests ways of acting on external forces, changing the practitioner's fate.

00:12:53.700 The blues tells the story

00:12:57.500 Both give the work a voice

00:13:01.380 And together they create a system

00:13:04.420 For surviving a world that wants them to live rough

00:13:23.700 Blues lyrics are filled with a hoodoo vocabulary, mojo bags and hands, roots, conjure, spells, black cat, bones, High John the Conqueror.

00:13:35.580 Side note, I could do a whole episode about High John, and in fact, I think I will.

00:13:42.080 Come back during our spring kinship season for that.

00:13:44.580 in blues we hear songs about crossroads fortune tellers and indeed the blues carried stories of

00:13:54.760 hoodoo practitioners and magical practices into a wider cultural world the blues transformed aunt

00:14:03.600 caroline die a real arkansas diviner a real witch who practiced real magic into a figure of mythology

00:14:12.940 To the point where, I've gotta go see Aunt Caroline die, became shorthand for having troubles, or seeking the help of a conjure woman.

00:14:28.740 Aunt Caroline's mojo bags had a whole cultural history wrapped inside them with the roots.

00:14:35.420 Lindsay wrote, quote,

00:14:36.740 In the 1910s and 20s, mojos became a lightning rod for racial politics in America due to an

00:14:43.540 important event that occurred overseas, the United States invasion and occupation of Haiti,

00:14:49.980 which lasted from 1915 to 1934. At the turn of the 20th century, Haiti went through a period

00:14:58.220 of political instability. A Haitian president was assassinated, and the people of Haiti took

00:15:04.220 to the streets in violent protest of his murder. In 1915, the United States sent in troops to

00:15:10.980 restore order and democracy to Haiti. A large part of that restoration involved eliminating 0.60

00:15:17.780 the presence of their voodoo practices, which the U.S. government took to be a source of social

00:15:24.060 degeneracy and barbarity. Americans saw Haitian charms and amulets, their dolls struck through 0.98

00:15:32.320 with shiny pins as evidence of their secret pacts with the devil. The West has long feared

00:15:40.140 the voodoo of the Haitians, for it was intimately linked to black struggles for freedom. It was

00:15:46.880 rumored that a voodoo ceremony incited the Haitian Revolution over a century earlier,

00:15:55.680 in 1794. For the United States, part of what it meant to gain control over Haiti was to suppress

00:16:04.220 the voodoo practices of the Haitians. So, during the United States occupation of Haiti, soldiers 0.94

00:16:11.280 were sent with instructions to rid the island of these objects and religious practices. In memoirs

00:16:17.540 and travel reports, these soldiers relayed stories that vilified voodoo practices in the American

00:16:23.360 public. Rituals that involved cannibalism of children, voodoo dolls that cursed unsuspecting

00:16:30.380 neighbors, spells that turned people into zombies or the living dead. These manufactured images of

00:16:37.920 savage Haitians gripped the American imagination. White Americans began to link the state of blacks 0.92

00:16:44.840 in Haiti with the state of blacks in their own country. White Americans believed that if blacks 0.94

00:16:52.180 were left to govern themselves, like in Haiti, they would lapse into the barbarity of voodoo. 0.93

00:16:59.720 In the minds of white Americans, inherent African savagery justified U.S. occupation of Haiti, 0.89

00:17:07.460 just as it had justified the system of Jim Crow in their own country. 0.69

00:17:12.700 The mojo of African Americans to the broader American public was a reminder of what happens 0.98

00:17:19.100 when blacks take control. 1.00

00:17:21.920 Haitian zombies and voodoo dolls 0.99

00:17:24.020 came to represent what white Americans feared would happen 0.99

00:17:28.740 if blacks were truly free. 0.98

00:17:33.540 That they would turn around and enslave them. 0.99

00:17:39.680 Anything that threatened white supremacy,

00:17:42.940 anything that represented black freedom and independence,

00:17:45.560 was seen as evil by the oppressors.

00:17:49.100 But this devaluation of our conjure by the broader American public did not deter us.

00:17:57.860 Rather, as Zora Neale Hurston notes, we just went on in our conjure, unknowingly influencing

00:18:04.960 American music and enjoying ourselves hugely while doing so, in spite of the derision from

00:18:11.160 the outside.

00:18:12.740 So, while America was busy ridiculing Conjure, 0.99

00:18:17.120 African Americans were placing mojos at the heart of their blues. 1.00

00:18:24.200 End quote. 0.97

00:18:25.520 But, as we see so often,

00:18:28.860 what the whites perceive as a threat

00:18:31.360 can have its tune changed when those whites figure out they can use it too. 0.69

00:18:36.260 For money. For luck. 0.97

00:18:39.400 For their own personal gain. 0.89

00:18:41.240 Caroline Dye was allowed to continue her work, albeit often surrounded by bodyguards, because she helped a white man too.

00:18:50.680 As Lindsay Stewart also wrote, quote,

00:18:53.140 Among African Americans, Aunt Caroline Dye was considered a powerful spiritual leader.

00:18:59.420 It was said that African Americans held great reverence for her and considered her word as law.

00:19:07.120 Her spiritual leadership, in part, was granted because of the real problems she helped them face.

00:19:15.040 Due to the herbal base of her conjure, she had incredible skills as a lay nurse.

00:19:20.560 Due to her special knack at finding lost things, they turned to her to reunite families often forcibly separated during slavery.

00:19:30.800 And due to her mojos, she gave African Americans the hope and strength they needed to endure and protest Jim Crow.

00:19:42.100 Even white men went to consult with her.

00:19:45.200 It was said that men high up in business affairs laid great store by her alleged remarkable power to foretell occurrences,

00:19:53.240 and that before making a financial move involving any considerable amount of capital,

00:19:59.020 they would first consult Aunt Caroline Dye.

00:20:03.120 Shuffling a deck of cards to help her focus

00:20:05.600 Aunt Caroline Dye would offer these men advice on their business affairs

00:20:09.480 much like a money manager on Wall Street.

00:20:13.340 She was so successful that men from as far as Chicago 0.97

00:20:16.780 and other cities of the North and East 0.57

00:20:19.020 came for a sitting with the old woman in her Arkansas home. 1.00

00:20:25.100 During Jim Crow 1.00

00:20:26.060 any black woman who possessed Aunt Caroline Dye's amount of wealth and authority would 1.00

00:20:30.980 draw unwanted attention from neighboring whites in the community. In 1909, newspapers reported 1.00

00:20:38.000 that Aunt Caroline Dye was visited by a deputation of citizens in an endeavor to ascertain whether

00:20:46.000 a cowering wretch, Albert Turner, being guarded by a mob was the right man to hang following

00:20:54.900 an assault upon a young woman of a distant town. 0.51

00:21:00.160 Similar scenes occurred frequently across the South during Jim Crow, a black man accused

00:21:06.220 of assaulting a white woman as pretense for lynching.

00:21:09.740 But there was a twist in this story.

00:21:13.660 The deputies who appeared at Aunt Caroline's doorstep wanted her to use her conjure to

00:21:19.560 confirm that Turner was indeed responsible for the crime.

00:21:24.520 Aunt Caroline was powerful, but even she was not in the position to outright refuse her services to law enforcement. 0.99

00:21:35.440 Instead, she simply strung the white citizens along without naming who was responsible for the assault. 0.61

00:21:42.620 At first, she told the deputies that Turner was not guilty, but that she could name the guilty party at a later date.

00:21:52.160 So, the deputies set a mass meeting where she could name the assailant in front of the mob of 400 people.

00:22:00.980 When the meeting came, she gave them much general information, but did not specify who was guilty.

00:22:09.360 End quote.

00:22:21.180 You heard my interview with Treasure Shield's Redmond earlier this week,

00:22:28.640 but what you didn't hear was me asking her if she had thoughts

00:22:32.120 about her hoodoo predecessor and Caroline. 0.99

00:22:34.960 The way that Conjure and Black Spiritualism has operated is 1.00

00:22:44.700 in polite company people are going to go to a physician and a preacher 0.74

00:22:54.360 but everybody knew that if you had exhausted those options that there was a third way 0.85

00:23:03.600 and black spiritualism and people like aunt carolyn die were the third way which is why

00:23:12.540 they were left alone which is why they weren't persecuted because people of power and means

00:23:18.660 waited until dusk and came to see them just like the people in their own community

00:23:24.600 and i'm reminded of a quote from the great sylvia federici one that risa and i repeat

00:23:33.200 all the time quote the revival of magical beliefs is possible today because it no longer represents

00:23:41.240 a social threat, end quote. Aunt Caroline was allowed to continue her practice because the

00:23:49.720 white law thought it could benefit them too. Aunt Caroline became aware of her abilities as a seer

00:23:57.020 while still a young child. She could reportedly see things outside of her line of vision that

00:24:02.700 others could not. Among several early examples is a story that during the Civil War, she foretold

00:24:09.380 a visit by a member of the family. Someone thought dead in the early years of the war.

00:24:17.700 One storyteller told an interview, quote, her hometown, Newport, Arkansas, is a hundred miles

00:24:23.560 by road or rail northwest of Memphis. And during the 30-year period when the reputation and

00:24:29.960 following of aunt caroline were most extensive were most extensive 1890 to 1920 it was a fairly

00:24:40.720 prosperous trading and cotton growing center of from two to four thousand population her dwelling

00:24:48.480 was large but a cheaply built structure on remel street not far from the business district people

00:24:55.980 living in Newport today tell of the large numbers of visitors who came to see her, who poured out

00:25:02.180 of the Rock Island trains on their way to her house, especially on weekends. When the crowds

00:25:08.040 hit the boardwalk at 2nd Street, it sounded like an army, says a Newport woman. Another tells of

00:25:17.580 earning dimes and quarters when she was a little girl by carrying people down to where Aunt Caroline

00:25:23.120 lived. She said I would meet the trains and when people would ask me where her house was,

00:25:29.400 I would offer to lead them there. I made a lot of money. Sometimes buggies and cars crowded the

00:25:36.980 street, lined up end to end for several blocks about her house. End quote. So Aunt Caroline was

00:25:46.220 not just making money for herself. She created a whole economy around her hoodoo. And while 1.00

00:25:55.760 a lot of her fortune came from her work as a seer and hoodoo lady, she and her husband

00:26:00.560 also made some very shrewd business decisions. Like the one written about in this newspaper

00:26:07.240 article from 1903. The headline is, $1,000 cash paid. Quote, a rather intriguing real estate deal

00:26:19.160 went down on Monday, one that's sure to pique the curiosity of the public. Mark Dye, husband to the

00:26:25.420 famous fortune teller Aunt Caroline Dye, purchased a residence from S.A. Mosley on Remmel Avenue,

00:26:31.540 a well-known street in Newport.

00:26:34.280 The transaction was valued at $1,000,

00:26:37.760 and sources confirm that the deal was completed with cash.

00:26:42.060 It's said that this amount is no small sum,

00:26:45.080 and it likely represents the substantial tribute paid by the many believers of Aunt Caroline's supposed clairvoyant abilities.

00:26:54.140 Her reputation has spread far beyond Newport,

00:26:56.800 attracting people from near and far who are eager to seek her supposed insight.

00:27:03.500 In fact, it's rumored that Aunt Caroline receives as much mail as any business in the area, 0.68

00:27:10.300 a testament to the widespread faith in her so-called mystical powers.

00:27:17.920 All this, it seems, helped finance the purchase of this prime piece of property.

00:27:26.040 End quote.

00:27:26.800 but what did her magic look like feel like the stories abound john quincy wolf no relation to

00:27:40.400 howlin wolf wrote quote a newport lawyer mr wesley bengal told me the following story about

00:27:49.060 an experience of his father in 1901 one morning mr bengal senior found his barnyard gate

00:27:56.120 unlatched, and his mare and mule gone. Suspecting theft, he spread the news about town, but got no

00:28:04.460 clues. At his place of business, a friend suggested that he see Aunt Caroline. I don't take any stock

00:28:13.120 in that kind of thing, said Mr. Bengal. Well, said the friend, you have to pass right by her house on

00:28:20.880 your way home, and it won't take ten minutes. It won't cost you anything either, but of course,

00:28:26.900 you can hand her a dollar if you want to. Two days after the stock was stolen, Mr. Bengel went to see

00:28:34.200 Aunt Caroline. When he entered her house, she opened the door of her consultation room and said

00:28:40.400 to him, I know you don't believe in me, but sit down anyhow, and I'll see you in a minute.

00:28:47.440 when she called him into her private room she said you don't think i can tell you nothing

00:28:53.580 but you come here to ask me about some livestock yes said mr bengal i've lost a mare and a mule

00:29:01.900 well if you'd come here as soon as it happened i could help you your stock was stolen and if

00:29:09.220 you'd come earlier maybe i could have found them but now they're clean out of the county

00:29:13.460 there was two men on horses and i can't tell you their names but you know them both they came at

00:29:21.660 night and took your stock and headed east they went by cow lake the water in the lake is low

00:29:29.420 right now and the ground around it is mostly dry and cracked but on the south side it's wet

00:29:36.160 and soft and if you'll go to the south side you'll see the hoof prints of four horses

00:29:42.600 And if you know what kind of marks your mare and mule make, you'll see them there.

00:29:50.020 The men went on to the first house east of Cow Lake and spent the night there.

00:29:55.880 The owner of the house wouldn't take pay from them the next morning, and they headed east, and are over in Poinsett County now.

00:30:06.340 I can't tell you any more about them, but if you go ask the man on the other side of the lake where they spent the night,

00:30:12.600 he'll tell you what I just told you. Now I'll tell you something else. You lost a saw and a hammer

00:30:21.000 last week. You went down in the pasture to mend the fence, and a neighbor come along while you

00:30:26.140 were working, and you got to talking to him, and you laid your hammer and saw down in the tall grass.

00:30:31.500 And after a while, both of you went off to look at something, and you forgot your hammer and saw.

00:30:36.740 But if you go down to the fence, you'll find them in the tall grass

00:30:41.960 Since the hammer and saw story turned out exactly as Aunt Caroline had related

00:30:50.340 Mr. Bengel thought it would be worth the time to follow up her account of the livestock theft

00:30:54.420 So, he rode a horse out to Cow Lake where he recognized the prince of his mare and mule

00:31:00.500 And went on to the house where the thieves had spent the night

00:31:04.620 He did not attempt to follow them further, because the information he got was too indefinite.

00:31:11.080 But he found the rest of Aunt Caroline's story accurate, so far as he could check it.

00:31:17.700 Several stories are told about how Aunt Caroline first became aware of her powers.

00:31:22.740 A man who worked on her farm and in her home for several years gives this account,

00:31:27.180 but says that it is hearsay, and so far as he knows, did not come from Aunt Caroline.

00:31:32.300 When she was about 20, before she came to Newport, she took sick and died.

00:31:40.600 A wooden coffin was made and her body was placed in it, but she awoke and climbed out of the box.

00:31:49.340 Thereafter, she found she could read the past, present, and future.

00:31:54.880 According to another story, Aunt Caroline showed powers of prophecy when she was a child.

00:32:00.160 born into a family of slaves, she had the knack for making predictions that somehow came true,

00:32:06.720 and of making lucky guesses that attracted attention on the plantation.

00:32:12.720 But no one thought much about her until Thanksgiving Day 1865. The master of the

00:32:19.280 plantation had a brother, Charlie, who had been reported killed in war in 61. On Thanksgiving

00:32:25.760 morning, 1865, when the table was set for the big dinner at which the family would celebrate its

00:32:31.760 reunion, Caroline, then about 10 years old, told the woman of the household that they hadn't set

00:32:39.440 enough plates. They counted, and the mistress assured Caroline that the number was correct.

00:32:46.780 But the child remonstrated, you ain't got a place for Mr. Charlie. She was reminded that Uncle

00:32:54.320 Charlie had been killed four years ago, yet she still maintained that he is coming to dinner

00:33:00.260 today. The family had just started eating when they heard footsteps in the hall,

00:33:05.740 and a very tired Uncle Charlie walked into the room. He said that he had been severely wounded

00:33:11.900 in 61, taken prisoner, and kept in a prison hospital until after Appomattox. He'd written

00:33:20.160 letters, but they had evidently been destroyed at the prison or lost in transit. The family thought

00:33:26.740 he might have been in the neighborhood for several days before Thanksgiving, and that Caroline had

00:33:31.160 learned of his arrival, but he assured them that he came straight from the prison, and had spent

00:33:37.120 the preceding night 25 miles away. On one occasion, a man from the nearby town of Oil Trough came to

00:33:46.400 her with his daughter. She was in a terrible state of mind. She walked on all fours and would howl

00:33:53.220 and scratch like a dog. After examining her, Caroline went to work making up a potion.

00:34:00.840 Taking two small bags, she mixed what she called rattlesnake dust and Adam and Eve dust, 0.97

00:34:08.480 placing the bags on the girl's shoulder and chest. The girl immediately started showing signs of 1.00

00:34:15.380 coming back to her right mind.

00:34:18.720 When you get home, Caroline instructed the girl's father,

00:34:22.880 take a wash pan and mix turpentine with the water. 0.99

00:34:26.160 Have her wash her hands and toss the water toward the east for nine days straight. 0.93

00:34:31.740 She is to repeat the phrase, 0.97

00:34:34.120 Here am I. Take all my troubles away.

00:34:39.380 She will soon return to normal. 1.00

00:34:41.960 She has an enemy, a lady named Lou. 1.00

00:34:45.300 Lou put a crazy spell on her and made her think she was a dog.

00:34:49.720 She will be okay now. 0.51

00:34:52.120 You can take her home.

00:34:54.800 End quote.

00:34:56.060 And while I hope there's no such thing as a crazy spell

00:35:00.000 and hesitate to recommend magic for medical issues,

00:35:04.800 I did wash my hands and toss the water toward the east one day,

00:35:10.720 repeating the phrase

00:35:12.860 here am I

00:35:14.960 take all my troubles away

00:35:18.540 and I gotta say

00:35:20.940 it helped

00:35:22.700 and the blues men kept singing 1.00

00:35:27.260 Well, I see them Hoosie women 1.00

00:35:32.920 Ooh, Lord, making up their low-down plans 1.00

00:35:36.520 Well, I'm going to Newport

00:35:41.940 There's a sea in Carolina

00:35:45.300 Well, I'm going to Newport

00:35:51.420 There's a sea in Carolina

00:35:57.260 For I'm going to Newport, I mean Newport, Arkansas

00:36:12.600 I'm going there to see Aunt Caroline die

00:36:15.340 Why, she's a reader, and I need her

00:36:17.700 Lord, Lord, Lord, she reads your fortune and her cards don't lie

00:36:22.360 Put some ashes in my sweet papa's bed

00:36:25.180 So he can't slip out 0.67

00:36:26.500 Hoodoo in His Bread. 1.00

00:36:29.960 In 1937, Johnny Temple named her again in his Hoodoo Women's Song.

00:36:35.680 Well, I turned around

00:36:37.480 Said I believe I'll go downtown

00:36:41.240 Well, I turned around

00:36:47.140 Said I believe I'll go downtown

00:36:50.980 To Chicago River

00:36:56.640 I'm going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline die. 0.98

00:37:01.980 She's a fortune teller. Lord, she don't tell no lie.

00:37:05.480 And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.

00:37:08.660 And she told my fortune as I walked through her door.

00:37:12.340 Said, I'm sorry for you, buddy. Oh, Lord.

00:37:16.180 The woman don't want you no more. 0.80

00:37:20.980 Her gravestone reads, Caroline, die, the sunbeam of the world.

00:37:29.640 So remember, witches, even if you have the blues, you can still be a sunbeam and a legend.

00:37:40.040 Repeat after me, here I am, take all my troubles away.

00:37:48.720 Now go, believe in your magic, and pitch a wang-dang-doodle all night long. 0.97

00:38:13.460 You must be a witch.

00:38:16.720 Hi, I'm Amy.

00:38:18.560 I'm Risa, voices you may have heard on the Missing Witches podcast.

00:38:22.640 Or maybe you know us from our books, Missing Witches and New Moon Magic, or our deck of

00:38:30.320 oracles, the Missing Witches deck of oracles, or maybe you just googled find a coven and

00:38:37.480 here we are, we're what you found.

00:38:39.640 We've been producing a podcast that was really an art project, a labor of love, kind of a 0.71

00:38:45.660 love letter between us two old hag baby witch friends in Montreal but we went looking for 0.82

00:38:53.240 stories we really were coming from a place of longing and missing we were looking for a feminist

00:38:58.280 history of magic and that became a huge many year life mission and somewhere along the way

00:39:08.840 we started our own coven we're just a couple of besties who 20 years ago started making music

00:39:17.380 together and then making magic together and then making a podcast together and then making books

00:39:22.860 together and making all of the things and we want to invite you to come into this creative 1.00

00:39:28.580 cauldron of energy it's sort of like our own social media for feminist witches welcome to 1.00

00:39:35.820 the coven. I'm Zoe Flowers. It is a place of, I would say, mutual understanding, mutual learning.

00:39:43.660 We teach each other. We learn from each other. We do magic for each other.

00:39:51.060 Light candles for each other. Encourage each other. Share stories. Create stories.

00:39:58.640 Hi, I'm Reed. I am a member of the Missing Witches Coven. I have been since 2023. I'm an ex-evangelical, an ex-fundee, and so after leaving church, I really, really longed for community and ritual, and I have found both of those things here.

00:40:18.200 I am a member of the Missing Witches Coven. I joined because the podcast lowers my cortisol

00:40:25.580 levels. It's validating, it's affirming, and it's nurturing. Hi, welcome to the Missing Witches

00:40:33.140 Coven. What you can expect in joining is one of the most collaborative, creative, and heart-filled

00:40:40.360 communities that I've ever seen. I love that my activism is welcome here. We are justice-loving,

00:40:49.180 anti-ableist, pro-queer, anti-racist, pro-trans, did I say queer, queer as hell, group of people.

00:40:57.780 I wanted to join a digital coven so that I could easily come and go as I please

00:41:03.140 without feeling like I have to do something regardless of my comfort level. This is not

00:41:10.260 the coven that's going to force you to do any of that this is the longest community i've ever been

00:41:15.400 a part of which says something i hope that you'll find it as um supportive and loving and kind as i

00:41:23.820 have i have learned stuff here i've been able to share my knowledge with people here do you like 0.52

00:41:31.460 music do you like witchy shit do you like history do you like meditation do you like art do you like 0.89

00:41:41.580 queer spaces do you like trans spaces it's a place where we gather around music in our 0.99

00:41:50.120 meetings there's usually some sort of song some sort of instrumentation we also have the hive

00:41:56.980 where we get online and one coven member creates a playlist for that month and the conversations

00:42:03.660 that you're going to be able to take part in there's a whole archive of content do you like

00:42:10.280 anti-ableist spaces do you like anti-racist spaces do you like the community building through the

00:42:15.940 digital web then you can come join our huts our coven it is the place for you 0.56

00:42:23.400 and you're neurodivergent and chronically ill do you have an altar do you not have an altar

00:42:29.560 do you spend a lot of time in bed do you spend a lot of time on the fork do you just need a place 0.72

00:42:34.160 to feel like you can be yourself then i think the missing witch's coven is for you it was for me

00:42:41.280 hope to see you so yeah that's what we do here i'm glad you're here welcome welcome welcome

00:42:49.560 to The Puppet. Every time I'm frustrated with social networking, I'm reminded that there's

00:42:56.180 already a place for me. So I hope it's also the place for you. Welcome. We love you, even though

00:43:02.720 we haven't met, because we know that you have been missing witches too. We want you to know

00:43:09.660 that we're here. There's hundreds of us all around the world inventing what magic and witchcraft is

00:43:16.700 together. And we'd really love for you to join us in that project of re-enchanting the world.

00:43:21.760 A home where we all thrive while dancing to the cycles of nature under the phases of the moon,

00:43:33.940 sharing stories and helping each other learn from life and life experiences. 0.95

00:43:42.360 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:43:46.700 And blessed fucking B. 1.00

00:43:48.300 And blessed fucking B. 1.00

Missing Witches - October 01, 2026

MW Aunt Caroline Dye - Here Am I, Take All My Troubles Away

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