The Conjured Chest

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• Kentucky, USA · A Kentucky family's story

  The Conjured Chest

  The Conjure Chest

  Told, never investigated

  

  A chest of drawers, probably made in Kentucky around 1830, which a family story says was cursed after Remus, the enslaved man said to have carved it, was beaten to death by the enslaver Jeremiah Graham, and other enslaved people put dried owl's blood in its drawers. The story ties eighteen deaths to the chest across the families who owned it, and says the curse was broken with the help of Sallie, a maid. Virginia Cary Hudson Mayne gave the chest to the Kentucky Historical Society in 1976.

  This is the enslaving family's story, told about the people they enslaved: Remus, Sallie and the others appear only as that family remembered them. The Kentucky Historical Society has since published new research on the chest, which is the place to start for their history.

  Earliest written source: A letter from Virginia Cary Hudson Cleveland (1894–1954) to her daughter, by the Kentucky Historical Society's account; she had the story from her grandmother. Not opened

  Kentucky Historical Society, "New details about the cursed chest" (archived)

  Tradition · not evidence