American Vampires

by Bob Curran

  And of course such near-forgotten abandoned buildings draw all sorts of local legend and folklore. The Gullah people who live in the area have their own stories, based on their own folklore, about such abandoned places. They say they are the lair of “swamp devils,” strange inhuman creatures that are the spawn of dark swamp entities and runaway slaves. Tales of the walking dead and beings akin to zombies are frequent.

  European folklore and Gullah beliefs have fused together in the swamplands to provide a rich tapestry of legend and lore. However, the basic beliefs remained essentially African and West Indian in nature. For instance, some slaves spoke of an experience called “kana tavario” in which the spirit of a dead ancestor visits the living world in order to complete some unfinished business or to hold conversations with descendants. The spirit of the dead person comes and squats upon the chest of the sleeper so that it can communicate directly with him or her, drawing energy from them during the course of the conversation. The sleeper later awakes exhausted. Among the Zimbabwean Shona people, the word madzikirira is used to describe something that visits a sleeper during the night and draws off energy. In South Carolina, the being is referred to as a Hag and the experience as being “Hag ridden.”

  Interestingly, there is a somewhat similar belief in Far Eastern folklore, especially Mongolian, where the phrase khar darakh is used to describe the experience. This means “pressed by the black or dark” and refers to a spirit that comes back from the dead, either voluntarily or at the direction of a black magician, to commune with the living. They squat upon the chest of the sleeper drawing energy from them.

  Throughout the Low Country of South Carolina there was a distinct trace of African lore and superstition all across society. The old forest gods and spirits of the mother country still slumber beneath the surface of the everyday world. There is still a belief in root doctors and in rootwork (herbal practices that are often connected with magic). Around the time of World War II, root doctors flourished all over the Carolina Low Country, mixing herbs and potions and dispensing charms. Possibly the most famous was Stepheney Robinson, famously known as Dr. Buzzard, who died in 1947. The title “Dr. Buzzard” was not exclusive to one individual, and was passed down among Gullah root doctors as a sign of status and power. In fact, Robinson was said to have been the son of another Dr. Buzzard who had practiced in the Low Country for many years. After Dr. Buzzard died, his ghost was said to take revenge on some of those who had crossed him during his lifetime. It was said that Dr. Buzzard would sometimes appear at the foot of their beds wearing the blue-tinted sunglasses he sometimes wore when alive, and through these he would drain the energy from the sleeper.

  Although one of the more famous conjure men in the South Carolina swamplands, Dr. Buzzard was certainly not the only one. Even during World War II, there were a good number of root “doctors” living among the remnants of old plantations, all with fanciful-sounding names such as Dr. Fly, Dr. Crow. Dr. Turtle, and Dr. Bug. All of them claimed to have knowledge far and beyond that of ordinary people and to be in contact with the old gods and spirits that dwelt in the swamps, which they could manipulate for their own purposes. Dr. Buzzard, it was said, could summon the dead and make them do his will if he so chose.

  Such a tradition of magic, dark gods and the dead stretched way back into South Carolina’s colorful history, and had its roots in the slave trade. Indeed, it was not only in the largely rural Low Country that such traditions flourished. In places such as Charleston, the dangerous John Domingo resided. The Black Constable, as he was known, lived in a curiously shaped house that had been owned by a Dutchman who had a reputation as a necromancer. There was even some talk that he might have somehow been involved with vampires.

  The street on which he lived had been extremely respectable and had once been the abode of many of the old Charleston families of quality. By the time John Domingo arrived, however, it had a distinctly “run down” feel to it and had such an evil name that few decent people cared to go there. The house where Domingo lived quickly gained a formidable reputation for evil. Local legend stated that a number of people had vanished in its vicinity and that bodies had been found close by with the blood drained from them. Strange noises and voices came from it, as well as queer smells.

  Domingo made his own laws and his neighbors were forced to respect that. An old man who lived next door to him saw what Domingo kept in his back yard and it terrified him, but he was forced to shrug his shoulders and say nothing because he “feared for his blood.” What did that mean? Had the neighbor glimpsed some sort of vampiric creature lucking there? Something that the Black Constable kept well away from human view? There were rumors of a thing living in the shadows of the yard and that Domingo had killed several people in order to feed the thing. Rumors around the city said that it was something without a skin, and that it was extremely voracious.

  But it wasn’t just vampires lurking about in his yard; there were other things under the Black Constable’s control that had vampiric tendencies. For instance, a man across the road from Domingo disputed over a well on his property that the Constable sometimes used. He forbade Domingo from using it, so the Constable sent a creature of light that resembled a rainbow to suck the well dry. After that, water never came again. Others believed that it might be a blood-drinking or energy-drinking spirit.

  The Black Constable’s end came in a rather dramatic and terrifying manner. At the very height of his pride and power, he was acting as an unofficial law officer. One evening, he pursued two burglars who were violating homes in the district. The robbers tried to escape, but Domingo caught them and brought them back to Market Street where a small crowd was waiting. Stepping ashore, he held each one up by the scruff of the neck. Nobody around saw anything except the Black Constable. His eyes certainly seemed to be fixed on something directly in front of him, and his darkened skin began to pale slightly For a moment, he stood upright, a look of bafflement crossing his face as if he could not really comprehend what was happening. Foam mixed with some blood began to run down from the corners of his mouth and he rose up onto his toes as if something were pulling him upward. Several bystanders swore that they saw the marks of long and inhuman fingers on his windpipe, even though there seemed to be nothing there. Letting go of the two thieves, Domingo started to claw at the air in front of him. The blood began to flow more freely from his mouth as though something might be drawing it from him. For a moment, he seemed to dangle in mid-air and then his body appeared to be thrown backward to the ground. Before anyone could reach him, he seemed to age a good number of years right in front of them, becoming an old and wrinkled man, and his face had turned the color of a withered cucumber. A local doctor came and pronounced John Domingo dead. Even as the bystanders looked at the cadaver, it seemed to shrivel up even more until it was merely a withered representation of its former self. Several times after his death, he was reputedly seen walking down the street and disappearing into the doorway of his strange house. His name lingered in the area and many rumors still claimed he was a vampire, years after his death.

  For the Gullah people, the main supernatural danger is the plat-eye. Initially, it’s thought that the plat-eye was simply an evil spirit that dwelt in a certain place, but it has taken on a variety of shapes. It is said to be the spirit of somebody who hasn’t been buried properly or who has been exceptionally evil, so the ground has refused the corpse. If a victim makes eye contact with the creature, then the plat-eye has the power to draw the energy from them into itself. The plat-eye is supposed to wait in the shadows of a moss-covered tree for someone to pass, and then it will leap out and confront them, eventually drawing their souls from them. Plat-eyes can, of course, take other shapes. Sometime they appear as great snakes, gliding through the swampy gloom, or they can take the form of an irritating insect that annoys travelers, sometimes leading them into dangerous, marshy areas where they might drown. In other instances, the plat-eye can take the form of a horrible looking creature that can pe
trify its victims with its stare. The name is said to come from a great extended eye that emerges from the center of the Being’s forehead and can look all around it.

  All through the South Carolina swamplands there are tales of haints (ghosts), plat-eyes, and boo-daddies, all of whom seek to prey on the living in various ways. The notion of the boo-daddy is interesting, because it signifies either a sorcerer or a supernaturally created being who often requires either the blood or energy of victims in order to maintain itself. In other words, a vampire. There is also a female equivalent known as a boo-hag, which is just as dangerous. It was thought that a witch or sorcerer could become either a boo-daddy or a boo-hag simply by taking off his/her skin. The being could then fly through the air and attack the living across the countryside. The existence of such beings was widely believed among the Gullah people, and the idea might have originated in the old forest gods and monsters that haunted the African nights, memories of which were still maintained within the slave religions. Gradually, however, the notion became slightly modified with certain Christian elements added. A crucifix fixed to a window or door might drive the boo-daddy away, but it wasn’t always a reliable protection, as the boo-daddy’s African origins might not recognize it. There was, however, one sure way in which the living could protect themselves and their property against haints and boo-daddies.

  For the Gullah, color has significance. Various colors symbolize various aspects of their lives, and the color associated with the supernatural in the Gullah mind is blue. To some, it can mean witchcraft and dark magic, but to others it was the color of protection against ghosts and evil things. Thus, to paint the front porch of a house with a light blue coloring was considered an infallible protection against witches and boo-daddies in South Carolina. Indeed, a shading of light blue paint that was used was sometimes described as “haint blue” because of this association. Once the doors and windows were painted, the boo-daddy, boo-hag, or any other evil thing couldn’t enter. Even to touch the painted area caused the creature pain. A smudge of such paint on the body would also serve to protect the individual, or so the tradition said.

  It was also said that the boo-daddies and boo-hags traveled around the South Carolina swamps in small flat-bottomed boats. Indeed, it was said that they preferred this method of travel to flying, as they could more easily see what was going on all around them. Small lanterns were sometimes attached to the ends of these boats to guide them through the swamps at night and they sometimes appeared like moving groups of fireflies drifting among the overhanging trees. There are a number of folktales concerning this type of boo-daddy or boo-hag. The following tale is one of the most celebrated.

  Bobby P lived with his father (Pa) in a little cabin deep in the swamps. His mother was dead and it was only the two of them, but they lived a reasonable life. However, as Bobby’s Pa got older, both of them began to long for a woman to tidy up and look after them. His Pa thought that it was high time that Bobby was married. But where could he find a girl out in the swamps? Throughout the next year, he took himself to the dances and the settlements nearby and met with a few of the girls there. They say that he proposed to several and even got accepted by a few, but when it came to the actual marrying, they got cold feet and Bobby was left to go back to the cabin.

  One day at a grocery store, he had a strange meeting. An old woman came out of the deep marshes in a little flat-bottomed boat from which she sold milk and eggs. She and Bobby talked, and it turned out that she had a granddaughter who was about Bobby’s age. It seemed like the answer to all of Bobby’s prayers.

  When they first met, she was everything that Bobby had hoped. Bobby suggested that they should get married by a visiting priest. So they went to Beaumont and were married, and Bobby brought the girl home to live with him and his Pa for a time. However, the girl was skittish and wouldn’t settle, as if there was something really troubling her. It turned out she didn’t like living with Bobby’s Pa, so he put down money on a little house of their own.

  One night after a large meal, Bobby felt tired and stretched out on the couch while his new wife settled down in a rocking chair on the front porch to do some sewing. As she did so, she hummed a little tune that made Bobby drowsy. He fell sound asleep and slept until morning. When he woke up, he noticed that his wife looked particularly hot and sweaty.

  And that was the way it seemed to continue. During the day, the girl cooked and looked after the house, but as the evening came around Bobby would suddenly get very tired and would either go to bed or fall asleep on the couch and awake in the morning to hear his wife come in and go to bed. She would sleep for a little while and then get up as fresh as ever to go about her work. He tried to question his wife about it, but each time he raised the subject, she became cranky and would either divert the question or refuse to answer it.

  In the end, he spoke to his Pa and told him what was happening. Bobby’s Pa was extremely worried, for he had heard of things that lived deep in the swamps that had the appearance of humans, but were not. They were vampires, and had no great love for humankind. He sent Bobby to a hex-woman to consult him about his wife. When she heard his story, she told Bobby that he had been drugged by a boo-daddy or boo-hag, and that he might be in great danger. She gave him an herb that would counteract the effects of the drug. She also told him to pretend to be asleep and to see what happened.

  Bobby did what she said and took the herb, which allowed him to eat the food that his wife gave him without feeling drowsy. Even so, he pretended to fall asleep on the couch as the hoodoo woman had instructed him to do. As usual, his wife took a seat on the rocking chair and hummed her little song. When she though he was asleep, she crept past him and up to the attic, where she kept a large spinning wheel. Bobby followed her and peered through a crack in the door. To his absolute horror, he saw his beautiful wife sit down at the wheel and spin off her skin, leaving only a creature of red muscle and blue veins, completely bald and with very sharp teeth. As he watched, this terrifying creature rose up and escaped out through a skylight window and away into the swampland night.

  The next day, he went back to the conjure woman and told her what he’d seen. The old lady nodded and told him that this was either a boo-daddy or a boo-hag, a shapeshifting fiend that had taken human form. At some point, she would turn on him, drink his blood, and gnaw his flesh. However, there was a way to defeat the thing.

  She told Bobby to buy himself blue paint and to wait until the being had flown away into the swamps. Then he was to paint the blue color around every doorway and every window, leaving not the tiniest bit unpainted. When that was done, he was to gather up the boo-creature’s discarded skin and to fill it with salt and pepper. Once she put this on again, it would burn her from the inside out.

  Once again, Bobby pretended to be asleep and his wife stole up to the attic to her spinning wheel. When she had gone, he began to paint every window and every doorpost with a blue color. Then, he nailed the windows closed with thick iron nails.

  The boo-creature returned just as the first fingers of dawn were touching the sky. Her mouth was covered with dried blood where she had been drinking from sleeping folks out in the swamp. As soon as she touched the skylight window, she gave a terrible shriek as the blue paint turned her away. She began to beat on the glass with her skinless hands, trying to find a way in. As Bobby watched, she began to test each window and door to find a chink through which she could enter. At last, she found a tiny piece of window ledge that Bobby had neglected to paint and began to squeeze herself through very painfully, her skinless form being torn on the rough edges of the wood. He heard her fall to the ground with a whimper. Outside, daylight was crawling across the swamplands and the conjure woman had told him that the creature had to get back into its skin before the sun was fully up.

  She bounded up three flights of stairs to the attic room. Once there, she tried to pull on her human skin, but the salt and the pepper that Bobby had put there burned her flesh. By now the sun was already
up, and as she flew out over the swamp, she exploded in a welter of skin and gore.

  Bobby never married again—after his experience he reckoned that bachelorhood was a much better option. But each night he would stand on his front porch and watch lights come and go deep in the gloom of the swamps, and he knew that the boo-daddies and boo-hags were moving about in their flat-bottomed swampboats, each with a lantern on its end.

  There are a number of stories similar to the one above in the swamp country. In some respects, such stories reflect the mystery and eeriness of the swamps coupled with the half-remembered traditions that were brought from Africa by the slaves. African witches allegedly drank blood or drew off the energies of their enemies, like a vampire.

  There are a number of references in the slave accounts collected around Murrell’s Inlet by the Writer’s Project to “blind Aunt Daddy,” who seems to have been a significant character in the wider Low Country. She appears to have been a slave woman of considerable age and was stone blind. Among the Gullah, as with many other cultures, physical deformity or physical disability was sometimes suggestive of a supernatural aspect to the person concerned. Aunt Daddy’s blindness may have given the impression that she was in contact with forces other than those of this world and that she was a witch. It was believed that, like John Domingo, she could travel around the countryside in various shapes, drawing both blood and energy from her neighbors in order to sustain her.

  Some of the references to her come from a servant named Lillie Knox, who was interviewed by Genevieve Willcox Chandler around the late 1930s. Lillie had been a house servant to the Chandlers and, at the time of her interview, she was roughly 10 years younger than Genevieve. She knew all about boo-daddies and plat-eyes.