February 4, 2005
Haint Blue
From my earliest memory I can recall seeing, from Richmond Hill, Georgia, to Yemassee, South Carolina, black folks' shacks on the side of the road, whitewashed, with bright blue paint for window trim. Call it a shade lighter than royal blue.
They called it haint blue, and it was meant to keep the evil spirits, the haints, or haunts, or ghosts, out of their house. Fair enough. I don't cotton to that particular faith set, as Al Gore would call it, but I understand the mighty power of belief, and faith, so who cares how you paint your window trim?
No one paid this sort of thing much mind, voodoo being an ingrained part of a lot of the subculture in my old environs.
My father lost a case or two he thought he had nailed, only to find some black sorceress had slipped salt in his pocket. He took it in good nature, and his agnostic nature made a mental note.
What chapped my ass was that point in the mid 70's when the Savannah Hysterical Society decided that they would be the ultimate arbiters of architecture and taste in the Historic District. They laid out a pallette of approved colors and styles (a color wheel!), and one of the colors was called, in giggly fashion, Haint Blue. As if any chicken shack with haint blue windows ever existed in the Historic District (probably, but those places had been torched), and if so, where did these supposedly blueblooded doyennes get off choosing the color as an "historically correct" color suitable for downtown? You can paint your brownstone windows haint blue! Your law office windows haint blue!
Fucking jerk offs. Taking a good old fashioned superstition and yuppifying it. Whitifying it. Bullshit, I say. Next thing you know these doyennes will be dancing on the tabletop at Bob's Cafe. (Whoops).
My Great Grandma, Mommie Webb, 86 with one tooth, used to gum Beech Nut chewing tobacco on the front porch on Cline Street in Pikeville Kentucky and tell us haint stories. They were all white hillbillies, as opposed to slave remnants in the Low Country. Not sure if superstition is inferior to the wafers and the wine but "haint" sure stirred an old, old meme.
Posted by: rankin rob at February 5, 2005 11:50 AMThe famous Jim Williams beleived in all that shit. He went to see Dr. Bustard in South Carolina once a month and then after he died he started seeing his daughter that was in the movie.
Posted by: Catfish at February 5, 2005 3:03 PMWhat was the main color, Taint Brown?
Posted by: rightisright at February 5, 2005 4:19 PMI can set you up with a voodoo priestess any day you want. That shit still goes on around here.
Posted by: Acidman at February 5, 2005 5:44 PMEverybody wants to be a silly rich white girl these days. I mean, just look at that Michael Jackson person.
Posted by: Justthisguy at February 5, 2005 10:10 PMWell, at least they didn't exclude it from their list of approved colors, like they did here on the Waccamaw Neck in SC. A little old cinder block nightclub, painted that shade of haint blue, used to sit on Hwy 17; it was frequented by black folks and had been a fixture for years. When it burned down the owner couldn't get permission to rebuild it and paint it the same shade, because it didn't fit in with what a bunch of transplanted Yankees deemed to be historically appropriate colors for this area. You know, muted gray, moss green . . .
Posted by: kc at February 7, 2005 10:44 PMHey Catfish, the name is not Dr. Bustard it's Dr. Buzzard.
Posted by: Jasmin at August 13, 2005 9:54 AMThank the gods we are outside the historic district. We wouldn't DREAM of painting our porch ceilings on our new house or shed anything but real "haint" blue, not that "official," dismal, Savannah shade. Ick. And we are not Gullah, yuppies, or Yankees. We just don't mess with success.
Posted by: S. Stephens at July 12, 2007 9:08 AMHaint Blue is a BIG part of the Savannah history. Yes, it came to Savannah via voo doo beliefs. Many of the slaves painted with haint blue in that time believing it to resemble water which evil spirits would not pass. The reality of it is that in 1820 in Savannah there was a yellow fever epedimic. People did not know how to cure it or protect themselves from and and this Haint Blue was in a way able to protect people living inside. It had one crucial ingredient in it's mix, lime. The lime repelled the disease carrying mosquitos. So as Yellow Fever is a big part of Savannah history so is Haint Blue. And I love the fact that we have a foundation to protect the beautiful architecture in Savannah from looking like every other dime a dozen town in the U.S.
Posted by: J. Savannah at July 16, 2007 5:40 PMAlso remember the Dutch in Pa, use to paint Hex symbols on their barns to keep a evil spirits away. Some people/religions cross themselves for..don't really
Posted by: Rich39 at December 5, 2009 8:02 PM