Seren Sensei

'Aunt' Caroline Dye #Women'sHERstoryMonth (Patreon)

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2025-03-07 23:07:23

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Caroline Tracy Dye, better known as “Aunt Caroline,” (b. around 1843 - d. September 26, 1918), was a highly respected seer, spiritualist, and root worker called “one of the most celebrated women ever to live in the Midsouth.” Dye amassed a fortune, investing in real estate and owning eight farms at the time of her death in 1918.

Caroline Tracy was born into slavery in South Carolina, and lived her life in bondage until being freed after the Civil War in 1865. Tracy later moved to Elgin, South Carolina, where she married Martin Dye on June 16, 1867. After they moved to Newport, Arkansas, her reputation as a soothsayer began to grow. Historian John Quincy Wolf wrote that, in a 400-mile radius from Newport, “Aunt Caroline” was as well known as President Woodrow Wilson. Clients from all over the South came to Arkansas for her to tell them their fortunes, with an especially strong following from Memphis, Tennessee.

Dye did not call herself a fortune teller and did not charge for nor advertise her readings, but her clients paid her what they could anyway due to her reputation as being extremely accurate. She reported that she received twenty to thirty letters a day, with most including money for her services. People crowded into her home in Newport to get a reading, inspiring Dye to add to her fortune by also selling them meals. She invested in farmland and real estate with the money she earned, purchasing Liberty Bonds and gold bricks, many of which she was rumored to have buried around Newport.

Caroline Dye died on September 26, 1918. She is buried in Gum Grove Cemetery in Newport. At the time of her death, Dye was a wealthy landowner, rental property entrepreneur, and famous seer despite never having learned to read or write. It is rumored that stacks of cash were found in her home, with some saying as much as nine thousand dollars - worth over $180k today - was removed from her house and put in the bank. As she had no children of her own, the bulk of her estate went to her nephew and to a thirteen-year-old girl she had adopted several years earlier.

Dye is considered a Blues legend due to being the subject of many famous Delta blues songs, including ‘St. Louis Blues’ and ‘Sundown Blues’ by legendary Memphis singer W. C. Handy. Willie Dixon mentions Aunt Caroline in his 1961 song Wang Dang Doodle, first recorded by Howlin’ Wolf; Johnnie Temple’s “Hoodoo Woman” is about her, and she was immortalized in the famous blues song ‘Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues’ by Memphis Jug Band, recorded on On May 29, 1930:

Thirty years after recording ‘Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues, Memphis Jug Band leader Will Shade was interviewed for the book ‘Conversation with the Blues,’ and said this about Dye: “White and colored would go to her. You sick in bed, she raise the sick. … Had that much brains — smart lady. … That’s the kind of woman she was. Aunt Caroline Dye... Had that much sense.”

[unhurried] {witness}: https://unhurried-witness.aadhum.org

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