In the seventeenth century and onward, British colonists in North America followed magical traditions from their homeland and inscribed them into architecture with apotropaic marks. The word “apotropaic” means “turning away,” and colonists would quite literally carve specific markings into “vulnerable” areas of their homes to turn evil away from them. “Vulnerable” here means susceptible to supernatural attack. The use of apotropaic marks in the England is extensively documented and studied, and such studies span histories, typologies, ways of identification, and meanings related to such marks. When studying the same topic in the context of American architecture, however, less comprehensive work has been executed.

By tracing the use of apotropaic marks in American colonial architecture, insight into the colonists’ migration experiences can be gleaned. More specifically, PhD and master’s theses have been written on the relationship between apotropaic marks and the fears of people in colonial New England, but less scholarship has been completed on apotropaic marks in the southern colonies, such as Virginia. By building an awareness of apotropaic marks in colonial America, researchers may better make sense of the colonial past, further understand the people who inhabited its architecture, and thus apply the same knowledge and use of the marks in New England to the marks in Virginian colonial architecture.

Using English knowledge as a basis, this paper studies the context of apotropaic marks in American architecture to argue that their use is two-fold: first, these marks carried British spiritual traditions into the American colonies, and second, these marks acted and as a way to quell fears related to living in a new colonial environment with unique challenges. Although many apotropaic artifacts and practices are documented in America, this paper will only discuss such markings in architecture. In addition, this paper will focus on examples from New England and how the fears and challenges of colonial life represented there by apotropaic marks can also be applied to apotropaic marks in a Virginia setting, thereby connecting American colonial architecture across space. 

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