High Sheriff of the Low Country

High Sheriff of the Low Country
Author: James McTeer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2010-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781450206945

James Edwin McTeer 1903-1979 Born in Hardeeville, South Carolina, Ed McTeer was appointed sheriff of Beaufort County, South Carolina on February 11, 1926 when his father died, leaving an unexpired term in office. The next year he married Jane Lucille Lupo, a young school teacher from Dillon County, South Carolina. They had five children, Jane, Georgianna, Sally, Ed, Jr., and Thomas. Ed McTeer went on to serve an unprecedented thirty-seven years as "High Sheriff of the Low Country."

Encyclopedia of the Undead

Encyclopedia of the Undead
Author: Bob Curran
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2009-03-19
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1601637152

What lurks out there in the fog? What was that eerie sound in the dead of night? What flitted by at the end of the street, just beyond the farthest street lamp? From earliest times, tales of the restless dead and their fellow travelers have terrified mankind. Whether around a remote campfire or in the middle of a bustling city, the unquiet spirits and attendant creatures that have tormented humanity since the prehistoric darkness haven’t gone away—they still have the power to strike fear in our hearts. Encyclopedia of the Undead traces those shadowy entities—vampires, werewolves, ghouls and monsters—that lurk just outside the range of human vision and inhabit our most frightening tales. Drawing on a wide range of beliefs and literature, it traces these horrors from their earliest recorded inceptions and charts their impact upon the human psyche. In this book, history and terror mix to create the things that lurk in the darkest corners of our minds. You’ll find detailed descriptions of terrors from all over the world—from the mist-shrouded mountains of Eastern Europe to the sweltering jungles of the Caribbean islands, from the dark, stone-lined tombs of the uncoffined dead beneath the remote New England hills to the dark magics that lurk beneath the thriving, colorful surface of a city like New Orleans. In addition to the more conventional creatures, Encyclopedia of the Undead also details some of the more obscure Things that gnaw at the edges of men’s minds—Incubi and Succubi, the Mara, and the dark legends that have influenced writers from Sheridan Le Fanu to H.P. Lovecraft. This is a book for all those who are interested in the darker side of the human mind—the side that examines and even embraces those beliefs and imaginings that form the basis of our most archetypical fears. This is the book for those brave enough to plumb the depths of our worst nightmares!

Coffin Point

Coffin Point
Author: Baynard Woods
Publisher:
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2011-03
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781579660888

Ed McTeer was the sheriff of island-bound Beaufort County, South Carolina, for 36 years. The Boy Sheriff was only twenty-two years old when he was appointed to finish his dead fathers term in 1926; he held the office until being voted out in 1962. During that time, McTeer dealt with syndicate rum-runners, voodoo-inspired murderers, mannered Southern politicians, civil rights pioneers, and local root doctorsand in doing so became more than an ordinary lawman. After an epic battle with the locally infamous Dr. Buzzard, McTeer, a white man, claimed he was the last remaining tie to the true African Witchcraft. Using his own brand of voodoo to help govern the largely African American county, McTeer never had to carry a gun during his long tenure. After losing office, he became a full-time practitioner of the dark arts, revered by the community at large. Collector of curios, historian, poet, raconteur, and voodoo doctor, McTeer was most assuredly a man of his times and an American original. In Coffin Point, Baynard Woods mixes stories and first-hand accounts from McTeers friends, enemies, and family with archival research and critical readings of McTeers own books in order to conjure the charismatic sheriff and the bygone world he inhabited. The enthralling, sweeping story reads like an episodic novel, shedding new light on the relationship between power and belief, and demolishing the beleaguered stereotype of the rural Southern lawman.

Lowcountry Voodoo

Lowcountry Voodoo
Author: Terrance Zepke
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2015-10-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 156164871X

When African slaves were brought to the American South to work the plantations, they brought with them their culture, traditions, and religion—including what came to be called voodoo. This unique blend of Christianity, herbalism, and folk magic is still practiced in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Though a beginners guide, Lowcountry Voodoo offers a surprising wealth of information about this fascinating part of Lowcountry life. Learn about: the Gullah and their ways how to bring good luck and avoid bad luck spells and curses and how to avoid them how to cook up traditional good-luck meals for New Years Day a real voodoo village you can visit sweetgrass baskets events and tours to acquaint you with Lowcountry culture. In a selection of Lowcountry tales that feature voodoo, meet: a boo hag bride who sheds her skin at night Dr. Buzzard, the most famous root doctor a giant ghost dog a young man whose love potion worked too well George Powell, who outwitted a haint Crook-Neck Dick, who (mostly) outwitted a hangman Doctor Trott, who captured a mermaid.

Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden

Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden
Author: Ben McC. Moïse
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2012-06-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1611171180

In this colorful memoir, a South Carolina game warden recounts a quarter-century of adventure patrolling the woods and waters of the Palmetto State. Ben McC. Moïse served with distinction as a South Carolina game warden for nearly a quarter century. In this career-spanning memoir, the cigar-chomping, ticket-writing scourge of lowcountry fish-and-game-law violators chronicles grueling stakeouts, complex trials, hair-raising adventures, and daily interactions with a host of outrageous personalities. With a lawman's eye for fine details, a conservationist's nose for the aroma of pluff mud, and a seasoned storyteller's ear for the rhythms of a good southern yarn, Moïse recounts his stout-hearted and steadfast efforts to protect the lowcountry landscape and bring to justice those who would run roughshod over fish and game laws on the Carolina coast. Along the way he paints a vivid portrait of evolving attitudes and changing regulations governing coastal conservation.

Spiritual Merchants

Spiritual Merchants
Author: Carolyn Morrow Long
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2001
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781572331105

They can be found along the side streets of many American cities: herb or candle shops catering to practitioners of Voodoo, hoodoo, Santería, and similar beliefs. Here one can purchase ritual items and raw materials for the fabrication of traditional charms, plus a variety of soaps, powders, and aromatic goods known in the trade as "spiritual products." For those seeking health or success, love or protection, these potions offer the power of the saints and the authority of the African gods. In Spiritual Merchants, Carolyn Morrow Long provides an inside look at the followers of African-based belief systems and the retailers and manufacturers who supply them. Traveling from New Orleans to New York, from Charleston to Los Angeles, she takes readers on a tour of these shops, examines the origins of the products, and profiles the merchants who sell them. Long describes the principles by which charms are thought to operate, how ingredients are chosen, and the uses to which they are put. She then explores the commodification of traditional charms and the evolution of the spiritual products industry--from small-scale mail order "doctors" and hoodoo drugstores to major manufacturers who market their products worldwide. She also offers an eye-opening look at how merchants who are not members of the culture entered the business through the manufacture of other goods such as toiletries, incense, and pharmaceuticals. Her narrative includes previously unpublished information on legendary Voodoo queens and hoodoo workers, as well as a case study of John the Conqueror root and its metamorphosis from spirit-embodying charm to commercial spiritual product. No other book deals in such detail with both the history and current practices of African-based belief systems in the United States and the evolution of the spiritual products industry. For students of folklore or anyone intrigued by the world of charms and candle shops, Spiritual Merchants examines the confluence of African and European religion in the Americas and provides a colorful introduction to a vibrant aspect of contemporary culture. The Author: Carolyn Morrow Long is a preservation specialist and conservator at the the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Minnow

Minnow
Author: James E. McTeer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781938235245

Minnow is an otherworldly story of a small boy who leaves his dying father's bedside hunting a medicine for a mysterious illness. Sent by his mother to a local druggist in their seaside village, Minnow unexpectedly takes a dark and wondrous journey deep into the ancient Sea Islands, seeking the grave dust of a long-dead hoodoo man to buy him a cure. With only a half-feral dog at his side, Minnow's odyssey is haunted at every turn by the agents of Sorry George, a witch doctor who once stirred up a fever that killed fifty-two men. Meanwhile, a tempest brews out at sea, threatening to bring untold devastation to the coastal way of life. Minnow is a remarkable debut novel that evokes the fiction of Karen Russell and Lauren Groff--a Lowcountry "Heart of Darkness" about the mysteries of childhood, the sacrifices we make to preserve our families, and the ghosts that linger in the Spanish moss of the South Carolina barrier islands.

Off-Season

Off-Season
Author: Ken McAlpine
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2010-07-07
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0307539032

No Longer the Forgotten Season Just after Labor Day, Ken McAlpine said good-bye to his family and began a drive up the East Coast, from Florida to Maine, on a one-man quest to capture the elusive “forgotten season” of beach towns shuttered until the return of warm weather. Off-Season is a moving portrait that brings to life the magic of the sea and shore in winter, the charm of beach towns emptied of summer crowds, and the warmth and eccentricities of year-round coastal residents who revel in small-town spirit. McAlpine skipped the more popular destinations like Nags Head, Virginia Beach, Cape May, and the Hamptons, opting to visit lesser known locales like Sharpes, Florida; Tangier Island, Virginia; and Montauk, New York. There he found people who celebrated the departure of the tourists with the cautious hope they’d return next summer. He encountered fishermen struggling to make a living, a former playboy lifeguard now ministering to the elderly and ill, a marine policeman both reviled and respected, a lone kayaker paddling away his grief, a couple fighting to save the world’s coral reefs, divers searching for everything from false teeth to dead bodies in dark waters, and deserted snow-covered beaches more beautiful than anyone could describe. More than a travelogue—and a whole new breed of beach read—Off-Season is a stroll off the beaten path and a look at the people and places in our country that keep the spirit of community alive.

Mojo Workin'

Mojo Workin'
Author: Katrina Hazzard-Donald
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2012-12-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252094468

A bold reconsideration of Hoodoo belief and practice Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. She examines Hoodoo culture and history by tracing its emergence from African traditions to religious practices in the Americas. Working against conventional scholarship, Hazzard-Donald argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she calls "regional Hoodoo clusters" and that after the turn of the nineteenth century, Hoodoo took on a national rather than regional profile. The spread came about through the mechanism of the "African Religion Complex," eight distinct cultural characteristics familiar to all the African ethnic groups in the United States. The first interdisciplinary examination to incorporate a full glossary of Hoodoo culture, Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System lays out the movement of Hoodoo against a series of watershed changes in the American cultural landscape. Hazzard-Donald examines Hoodoo material culture, particularly the "High John the Conquer" root, which practitioners employ for a variety of spiritual uses. She also examines other facets of Hoodoo, including rituals of divination such as the "walking boy" and the "Ring Shout," a sacred dance of Hoodoo tradition that bears its corollaries today in the American Baptist churches. Throughout, Hazzard-Donald distinguishes between "Old tradition Black Belt Hoodoo" and commercially marketed forms that have been controlled, modified, and often fabricated by outsiders; this study focuses on the hidden system operating almost exclusively among African Americans in the Black spiritual underground.