Category: Francis Plantation

"The Conjured Kitchen"

4/16/2021

Not published outside of the collection apparently. Neither McMichael nor Dougan indicate any previous publication.
While this story is included in the Dougan collection, McMichael doesn't discuss or review it in the biography.
Character connection: Mrs. Francis--presumably the wife of Mr. Francis mentioned in "Otto the Knight." Mr. Francis and young Caroll are mentioned as the owners of the plantation on p. 8) is the one who hires Aunt Callie (Caldonia) to run the plantation kitchen.
The premise: "Every one in Arkansas knows how wicked negroes can conjure other negroes by charms, or spells, or diabolical potions" (p. 64). Callie declares the kitchen is conjured because the bread fails, the butter won't churn, etc.
Jinny Ver, Caldonia's daughter, is hired on as well, and Jerry falls in love with her. He takes off with a wild horse borrowed from Mr. Francis to take to Old Man Maggart so he can slap him and end the conjuring (p. 80): "aims t ' go see Ole Man Maggart an ' unconjure you all" (Thanet, p. 81). He apparently accomplishes the task and wins the girl.

Notes:

Recently, this story was featured on Jerry's House of Everything. The blog includes a plot summary and indicates the story did run in Harper's, but the date of publication is unknown. There's a bit of commentary on Thanet's anti-suffrage stance as well.
Conjure stories by Thanet might be an interesting research thread--how does her work fit (or not) in the larger context of southern folklore/conjure tales?

I was excited to begin Otto the Knight and Other Trans Mississippi Stories in part because of the regional focus. A few of these stories carry over characters from stories published in Knitters in the Sun. Michael B. and Carol W. Dougan's 1980 collection By the Cypress Swamp: The Arkansas Stories of Octave Thanet brings many of those stories together, although the title story "Otto the Knight" is not in that collection. Given the very light emphasis on the setting here, the omission of the story isn't completely surprising. McMichael also only mentions the story itself on page 125, indicating that it was chosen as the title for the collection solely based on the fact it was the first story.

The omission is interesting, given that Lum Shinault definitely lives on the Black River in "Whitsun Harp, Regulator" and because there is the connection to getting lost in the swamp. Marty Ann searching for Boo gets lost, just as Ma' Bowlin got lost in the earlier story.

Basic Summary:

Originally published in Scribner's Magazine, III, (August 1888), 156-73. Reprinted in Otto the Knight.
Main characters: Otto Knipple, Aunt Betsey, Marty Ann, Baby Boo, Dake.
Characters who appear in other stories: Lum Shinault, who is now a sort of lawyer, (esquire) ("Whitsun Harp, Regulator") and Mr. Francis ("The Conjured Kitchen").
Of note: The setting and description of the plantation store, the road, and houses. The setting embodies two periods: "It was the old South and the new" (Thanet, p. 2).
Otto Knipple is a bit simple, but highly principled. He's joined the secret society of the Knights of Labor, which Aunt Betsey compares to the KKK, on the basis of "secret society" alone. Dake, a carpenter who is widowed, is seen as a scab and the mill he operates is blown up. Otto saves Baby Boo from the explosion, and is hailed as a hero. The twist is that Otto set up the explosion, and he eventually confesses his crime and is forgiven.
Subplot: Dake and Marty Ann fall in love. Dake loves her child, Boo, and gives her a doll: "Seerayphine Dake, be it explained, was not a little live girl like Lizzie Victory, but a beautiful wax doll that could open and shut its eyes, and cry in the most natural and affecting manner if you squeezed her stomach. Dake had bought her in St. Louis and put her on the Christmas tree for Boo" (p. 26). The doll is what Boo goes to the mill to fetch when the explosives are set. Dake decides Marty Ann conspired with Bassett to kill him in the explosion: "He would not be fooled by another false woman. A sentence that an old German, a former member of a religious community in Iowa, used to quote, kept running in his head: 'Woman is a magic fire.' Well, he was burned" (p. 28). Eventually, the two reveal their mutual love and Dake stays put, rather than moving away.

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"The Conjured Kitchen"

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