Scroll down to see the histories in date order.
Polibius, Bermuda, 1755
4th December 1755
Polibius was an enslaved man indicted in the Bermudian Court of Assizes for poisoning in 1755, when there was no law against obeah. If the law had been different he might well have been prosecuted for obeah instead. Polibius was accused of having three years earlier hidden ‘certain Poisonous Matter or Mixture of sundry ingredients
Mary, Sarah, Tony, Neptune and Solomon, Jamaica, 1767-1782
1st April 1767
Obeah was not illegal until 1760, when the Jamaican Assembly passed ‘An Act to remedy the evils arising from irregular assemblies of slaves and to prevent their possessing arms and ammunition and going from place to place without tickets, and for preventing the practice of obeah, and to restrain overseers from leaving the estates under
A Butler in Vere, Jamaica, approx. 1770s
1st January 1775
The experience of an enslaved brother and sister in eighteenth-century Jamaica demonstrates family connections and relationships of support that could existed amongst enslaved people. It was described in the evidence about obeah provided by Stephen Fuller, the Agent for Jamaica, to the 1789 ‘Committee of Council appointed for the Consideration of all Matters relating to
Winter, Jamaica, April 1776
1st April 1776
Winter was one of several enslaved people convicted of obeah in Jamaican slave courts in the decades after the 1760 legislation which first made obeah a criminal offence. He was tried in the slave court of the parish of St. Thomas in the East (today’s St. Thomas) and sentenced to transportation. This probably meant that
The ‘Woman of the Popo Country’, Jamaica, 1770s
1st January 1788
One of the most frequently repeated stories about the practice of obeah—at least in printed sources–first appeared in material presented to the British parliament in the late eighteenth century. The story, which we refer to as that of the ‘Woman of the Popo Country’ was much re-used and re-told in later generations. The story was
Graman Quacy, Suriname, late eighteenth century
4th December 1790
Graman Quacy (or Kwasi) was a healer in the eighteenth century Dutch colony Suriname. He was probably born in the late seventeenth century, in the part of Africa that is now Ghana. The main way historians know about him is through the writings of John Gabriel Stedman, a British soldier and writer. Stedman wrote about
Rock, alias Venture, Jamaica, 1791
1st January 1791
Many enslaved people resisted enslavement by escaping from slave owners and living in Maroon communities or hiding in small groups nearby plantations. One way we know about them is through the advertisements placed by slaveholders in newspapers, offering rewards to others if they captured the runaways. One such advertisement, for two men including ‘Rock, alias
Brutus, Jamaica, 1788 to 1792
31st December 1791
Some records of the trials of people accused of obeah show that they were involved in collective activity to attack slavery, and that international events such as the revolution in Saint Domingue (Haiti) were widely discussed in Jamaica. One such case involved Brutus, an enslaved black man who had been convicted in 1788 of practising
Polydore, Jamaica 1831
28th July 1831
In 1831 in a special slave court in the parish of St. Dorothy, now part of Clarendon, an enslaved man named Polydore was charged with obeah, convicted, and sentenced to transportation for life. The records of the case provide one of the most detailed accounts of spiritual healing from the slavery period. First page of Minutes
Pierre, Grenada 1833-34
6th March 1834
Most people prosecuted for obeah during slavery were enslaved. Their trials took place in special ‘slave courts’, which only tried slaves. Few records remain of these trials. However, from the 1820s, Caribbean colonies sought to transport people convicted of serious crimes to the penal colonies in Australia. In order to implement such sentences, the colonial governments
Amelia Barker, Trinidad, 21 May 1898
21st May 1898
Amelia Barker’s case shows how accusations of obeah were widely made, even when people weren’t on trial for obeah. Barker, who lived in Port of Spain, Trinidad, was threatened with arrest by a policeman, Sergeant Bernard, because she threw water onto the street outside her house. Angered by what she perceived as interference in her
Rosabelle Rennalls and others, near Spanish Town, Jamaica, June 1899
28th June 1899
Many people arrested under the obeah laws were members of religious communities who were prosecuted for group worship and/or healing activities. This was the case with the prosecution of Rosabelle Rennalls, Joseph Stephens, Julius Walters, Joseph Thomas, George Morgan, Miriam Henry and Leonora Thomas for participating in a religious healing meeting at Beggar’s Bush Pen
Isaac White, Trinidad, 1907
4th December 1907
Isaac White’s prosecution reveals many common strategies of both prosecutors and defense lawyers in obeah cases in early twentieth century Trinidad, and is also interesting because the court heard considerable details about White’s ritual practices. It is one of many cases where the ritual specialist was asked to influence the outcome of a court case.
Charles Dolly, Leeward Islands c 1904
19th December 1908
Charles Dolly was convicted on at least five occasions for practising obeah between 1898 and 1908. Known as ‘Dr Tishum’ or ‘Tickem’, he was probably born in Grenada, but spent the later part of his life in Montserrat, where all his convictions took place. By 1908 he was described as being ‘over seventy’, suggesting that
Mary and Arthur Clement, Trinidad, 1910
12th July 1910
Obeah prosecutions were used very broadly, including against people whose healing work drew on European traditions such as mesmerism. One such case took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1910, when a husband-and-wife team, Mary and Arthur Clement, were prosecuted for ‘obtaining money by false pretenses with intent to defraud by the practice of
Rose Ann (Mammy) Forbes and George Forbes, Jamaica, early twentieth century
7th April 1916
Rose Ann Forbes, also known as ‘Mammy Forbes’ ran one of the most important balmyards in Jamaica for at least thirty and probably nearly sixty years, at Blake’s Pen, on the border of Manchester and St. Elizabeth. Rose Ann’s husband, George Forbes, was also involved in healing at the balmyard. According to oral tradition, Forbes
Teacher Bailey, Trinidad, 1918
9th January 1918
In Trinidad, the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 made practices of worship associated with the Spiritual Baptist religion illegal. Adherents of the religion were known by outsiders as ‘Shouters’, but described themselves as ‘Baptists’, ‘Penitents’ or ‘Spiritual Baptists’. The Spiritual Baptist religion was a form of African-oriented Christianity that developed in the late nineteenth and
Daniel Young, Trinidad 1931
22nd May 1931
Daniel Young’s conviction for obeah highlights the importance of mass-produced books, particularly those published by the Chicago-based de Laurence publishing company, in twentieth century forms of spiritual work. The company was founded by Lauron William De Laurence, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1868. It published a mixture of magic, spiritual, and occult books, often plagiarising
Cindy Brooks, Jamaica 1964
26th March 1964
From the 1940s prosecutions for obeah became less common, at least in Jamaica. The conviction of Cindy Brooks in 1964 is one of only a handful of prosecutions that took place after Jamaica became independent in 1962. As in the earlier conviction of Daniel Young in Trinidad in 1931, the occultist publishing and distributing house De Laurence