The Conjure Woman is the title of an 1899 collection of seven stories by Charles W. Chesnutt, an important African American writer from the post-Civil War South; it was his first book. The stories deal with the racial issues facing the South after the war, often through the comments of the character of Uncle Julius McAdoo, a freed slave who tells these stories to a white couple from the North, John and Annie, who are thinking of moving south (because of Annie's health) and of buying an old plantation vineyard in "Patesville", North Carolina. Uncle Julius's stories resemble African American folk tales and include many supernatural occurrences built around hoodoo conjuring traditions; they are also much less idealistic and romanticized than John's understanding of Southern culture. describing black resistance to and revenge against white culture.[1]
The conjuring aspect of the stories was the quality that got the book published. Chesnutt had originally submitted a proposed collection that included only two or three conjure tales, but the editors felt that the conjure tales were the best and most innovative part of the collection and asked him to write more in order to have enough for a full book.[2]