This article traces the postbellum development and dissemination of the notion of “negro superstition.” By the end of Reconstruction, many whites across the nation, both liberal and conservative, shared in the belief that credulity was the keystone of African American culture. The formulation of superstition as innate racial trait served the conjoined causes of sectional reconciliation and white supremacy, eroding white support for black citizenship. As liberal estimations of black Christianity declined and conservative depictions of African American magical beliefs proliferated, “voodoo” gained traction as a potent imaginary, shorthand for racial atavism, unreason, and dangerous sexuality.

中文翻译：

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种族、重建和“黑人迷信”的发明，1862-1877

本文追溯了战后“黑人迷信”概念的发展和传播。到重建结束时，全国许多白人，包括自由派和保守派，都相信轻信是非裔美国人文化的基石。将迷信表述为与生俱来的种族特征，促成了部门和解和白人至上的共同原因，削弱了白人对黑人公民身份的支持。随着对黑人基督教的自由主义估计下降和对非裔美国人魔法信仰的保守描述激增，“巫毒”作为一种强有力的想象、种族返祖、不理性和危险性行为的简写而受到关注。