John the Conqueror

John the Conqueror, also known as High John the Conqueror, John, Jack, Jim, and many other folk variants, is a deity from the African-American spiritual system called Hoodoo. Many of its earliest mentions are from oral traditions and in tales from escaped slaves, such as Frederick Douglass's autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845. He is associated with the roots of Ipomoea purga, the John the Conqueror root or John the Conqueroo, a plant native to the South-eastern United States. Tales of magical powers are ascribed in African-American folklore to the plant, especially among practitioners of Hoodoo. John the Conqueror has also been mentioned in songs by Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, and Dr. John.