From roughly the 1650s to the 1730s, a notable amount of witchdoctors established businesses in the ports of the Carribean Sea, peddling blessings and curses to nobles, merchants, and pirates. Here are some of the most notorious witchdoctors of that age.
Hubert Reekse
This witchdoctor from Barbados operated on San Salvador before moving to Port Royal. His specialty was love blessings and revenge curses. Eventually he was chased from his home in the middle of the night by an angry mob. He found his way to Grenada where he traded mostly as a merchant, but our research shows he might have been an active witchdoctor on the island for 20 years.
Rafael Gullon
This witchdoctor started peddling blessings and curses as early as 1695 – when he was only 15. He developed and then sold a variety of curses – he was known for blood curses. By his mid-thirties he was reportedly rich enough to retire but still performed blessings and curses as favors.
Daphne Isidore
This famous witchdoctor from Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti) was chased from her native land in 1718 – her curses were too successful for her own good! She sailed around the islands and settled on San Salvador, where she re-invented herself as a blessings specialist, although she is rumored to still have taken wealthy clients and performed her dreaded “Dark Night” curse for them.
Esteban Arumel
Arumel was a spanish sailor whose ship sank off the coast of Hispaniola in 1668. He lived with and earned respect from the natives and eventually apprenticed with one of the local witchdoctors. In his old age he sailed from island to island to deliver blessings (and sometimes curses too). We have traced his travels to Havana, Grenada, San Salvador, Nassau, and Port Royal, where he earned a glowing reputation and took on apprentices before passing away. He was known for his “games of luck” blessings and feared for his “red mask” curse.
This page is part of our public research efforts. For our latest research, check out our research partners page.