Ritual Concealments

Contributed by Bellamy Museum Board Member Lynn Wood Mollenauer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of History, University of North Carolina Wilmington

The 1859 Bellamy Museum slave quarters is a rare surviving and interpreted example of this type of urban structure. During the multi-year restoration of the slave quarters, archeologists discovered a cache of small objects under the floorboards of the first story bedchamber. The assortment included buttons, a bead or two, an animal’s jawbone, a shard of pottery, and parts of a child’s doll. While we cannot definitively identify it as such, it is likely that this collection of seemingly mundane items is a ritual concealment.  

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The items are on display at the museum

A ritual concealment, sometimes called a spiritual cache, is a hidden collection of objects intended for protection. The objects are typically ordinary things that to modern eyes seem to lack religious or spiritual significance. Ritual concealments have been deposited for centuries across North America and Europe and are part of African cultural traditions as well. The earliest European examples are pre-Roman; deposits containing animal skeletons, coins, and bottles have been excavated from buildings that date from the Bronze Age forward. Concealments were secreted under windows and doorways to safeguard homes or embedded in walls and hearths during construction to ward off evil and misfortune. In North America, European colonists continued the long-standing practice, bricking up dolls, shoes, knives, pieces of clothing, horse skulls, and even dead cats in the belief that the hidden items would ensure the well-being of the building’s inhabitants. (We know the cats were placed deliberately, as they were often posed with rodents in their mouths.) Excavations on antebellum plantations reveal that enslaved peoples too left ritual deposits, which might contain beads, nails or other pieces of iron, and ceramic shards.

A concealed shoe found under a floor board in the historic home of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. built in the 1880s.

A haint blue porch ceiling. The word 'haint' refers to a ghost or spirit and is related to 'haunt'.

In the 19th century United States these ritual practices continued, albeit usually — but not always -- without the cats. Archeological evidence demonstrates that both White and Black Americans across the country sought the sense of security that supernatural safeguards afforded. The inhabitants of North Carolina were no exception. In addition to using ritual concealments, Wilmingtonians scattered salt or seeds to deter witches (witches were believed to be so compulsive that they would stop to examine each minute grain) and nailed horseshoes over doors for good luck. Some painted their porch ceilings “haint blue” to ward off evil spirits. The practice derived from Gullah Geechee folklore, which held that spirits would mistake the pale blue color for water, which they could not cross. 

Evidence from newspapers and novels suggests that North Carolinians also used amulets and charms for supernatural protection. In Charles W. Chestnutt’s 1901 Wilmington-based novel, The Marrow of Tradition, for example, the character Aunt Jane buries a charm in her employers’ backyard during a full moon.  The charm, provided by a conjure woman living on the edge of town, is meant to keep the baby boy Aunt Jane looks after safe from harm. Its contents included calamus root, a bone from a black cat, and a vial of water in which the baby had been bathed. Amulets, sometimes called “conjure bags,” were charms that were most often worn around the neck. They were believed to ward off disease and other manifestations of ill will, as well as to help defendants in court. Newspaper articles from the time indicate that the use of conjure bags was not at all uncommon. As the Wilmington Messenger reported of accused arsonist John Braswell, “he had two conjure bags with him in court . . . and relied on them more than his lawyers.” (March 3, 1898) The reporter seemed to take some satisfaction in noting that John Braswell was nonetheless found guilty.

The slave quarters at the Bellamy site was built in 1859, mostly by enslaved workers, and sporadically occupied into the 1930s. It sat empty for decades and a new roof was placed by the family in the 1980s. When Preservation NC became involved in 1989 maintenance work occurred gradually as the museum evolved. The building has been featured on the museum tour since 1994 in various stages of repair. A complete restoration was undertaken in 2013-14 to return the building to its original condition. Intriguingly, the slave quarters of the Bellamy Museum may have even more ritual deposits hidden within its walls. Chunks of obsidian and shards of broken china, embedded in the mortar of the east and south walls, were discovered during the 2013-14 restoration. They too may be evidence of a ritual meant to protect the building’s inhabitants.

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