Hey y'all, welcome to another video in collaboration with Real Talk Session series with me, Dujuvet. And today I want to talk to y'all about one of my favorites elevated ancestors in the Poole tradition that is none other than Hyde John the Conqueror. Hyde John the Conqueror was an enslaved African man and he was enslaved in the American Southern United States and he was known for his cunning ways. He was known for his wit and being able to outsmart the slave masters and being able to outsmart white people. So Hyde John, if he ever found himself in a bind or in a dangerous situation, you could always count on him to get out of that situation, scotch free and have other people around him looking like, now how do he do that? That was the energy of Hyde John. So Hyde John helps us get out of our binds. He helps us get out of difficult situations or their situations where people may be trying to oppress or harm us. When we call him the spirit of Hyde John, he's able to help us move out of those very difficult situations with joy, with laughter, being the smarter one and being the one that ends up on top and successful in the end. That is Hyde John. So when enslaved people were free during emancipation, Hyde John said, okay, so slavery is over, so I'm going back home. But when I leave, know that I'm not leaving y'all behind, I'm putting my essence, I'm putting my spirits in a particular root. So if you ever need me to come back, if things become difficult again, feel free to just grab this root and pray to me and I will come back and make sure that you win, I will make sure that you are successful and that you get out of whatever difficult situation that you do with cunning, with grace and on top. So Hyde John did not leave us and Hyde John did not leave our ancestors, so he put his energy and essence into a root, which we call Hyde John a conqueror root, as you can see here. So the scientific name for this root is Apomia Jalapa and it is actually not native to the United States, it is native to Mexico. So it's fair to say that this probably was not the exact root that Hyde John was speaking of when he said to carry this root if you want to be successful and have good luck, but this is the root that is so commonly used within the Houdu practice because it is accessible. The root that was probably used was Apomia Pandarata, which is the root form of what we know as the flower the morning glory. But traditionally when you have or see a Hyde John root, it will be Apomia Jalapa just like this. So as I said before, Hyde John is able to get us out of issues involving our oppressors that we're able to dominate the situation and still do it, being sleek and cool and funny and sly with a lot of wit. And I want to share a story with you all about Frederick Douglass and how Frederick Douglass attributed his strength to get out of a difficult situation with his slave master having Hyde John root on him. So Frederick Douglass shares a story with us from his memoir A Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass where he talks about how he used Hyde John root to beat up his slave master. So Frederick Douglass was sold to a plantation and the plantation owner was named Mr. Covey. And Mr. Covey was a horrible slave master. Okay, all slave masters were horrible. But Mr. Covey was one that was known to just be extremely irate, extremely erratic. He was an evil man. He beat his slaves. He never gave them anything that they needed. He was absolutely horrible and people knew that Mr. Covey was not someone that you wanted to get sold to. But Frederick Douglass was. And so after one of his regular days at Mr. Covey's plantation, Mr. Covey came up to him and just started beating him. He polvarized Frederick Douglass. He had wealth all over his skin. He was bleeding. And Frederick Douglass was completely beside himself. He was clearly traumatized and upset. So after this really vicious and horrible beating, he runs off into a nearby forest just to gather his thoughts and to just gather his spirits and to get away from Mr. Covey. And while he was there, he runs into a root worker, a conjured doctor named Sandy. And Sandy says, Frederick, I have been waiting for you to come over here and meet me so I can give you something. And Frederick Douglass is like, what did you want to give me? Like, do you see me right now? I'm beat up. I'm not feeling well. Sandy's like, no, come on in here. You have to go back to the plantation. You can't stay here. But I'm going to give you something so that when you take it, you will not have to deal with that mess anymore when you get back to Mr. Covey. And Frederick Douglass is like, you must not know Mr. Covey. Because I don't know what you could give me that would keep me safe from him. So Sandy says, just follow me. So they go deeper into the forest and Sandy grabs something, a root for Frederick Douglass and gives it to him and says, carry this on your right side and your right pocket. And when you have this, you will find strength and he will not bother you anymore. And of course, Frederick Douglass was like, I don't, I have nothing to lose. So okay, Sandy, I will take this root. I will put it in my right pocket and you're saying I have to go back to the plantation. So I'll do that. Sandy said, good. So Frederick Douglass mosey don't belong back to Mr. Covey's plantation. And when he got back there, Mr. Covey was like, oh, hey, Frederick, how you doing? Mind you, Mr. Covey does not talk to any of his slaves. So Frederick Douglass was taking a bag. He was like, how you doing, sir? Good evening, sir. And they just spark up a conversation. So Frederick Douglass said, hmm, maybe this root does work. But let me see if it really works. So Frederick Douglass took that opportunity to grab Mr. Covey by his neck and continue to beat his ass. And Mr. Covey didn't fight back. And Frederick Douglass let out all of his anger. He is getting his revenge. I mean, he is taking over that situation. And in that moment, he was thinking, where did I get this strength from? Why isn't Mr. Covey not really fighting back? How am I successfully able to fight my plantation owner who was completely evil to everyone? He would never allow this. And he attributed that strength and that power and that success to the high-john roots, which we would probably know as the morning glory flower, apomia, ponderada. So that is a wonderful story that shows us that our ancestors and ancestors that we know are very well still used to still use root work to be able to get out of oppressed states and be fine and completely safe. And he was protected from Mr. Covey from that point on. So that's why high-john roots in the elevated ancestor of high-john is a wonderful spirit to call on when we feel like we are being oppressed, when we need to get out of binds, when we are trying to fight against white supremacy and white domination in perversion, this is a root that was given to us to be able to successfully move through that just as Frederick Douglass did and just as Hyde John the Conqueror did. So I hope you all enjoyed this video about my fav Hyde John. Don't forget to follow me at HJUJU Bay on Instagram as well as Twitter and also follow a little Juju podcast on Instagram. And then of course you got to check out Taren over at the Real Talk session series and listen to the miseducation of the people podcast. Don't forget to rate, subscribe, review, five stars, all the things for both of us and I'll see you all later. And remember, all you need is a little Juju. Bye.