View source for Haint blue

{{short description|Shade of blue}}
[[File:Haint blue Victorian porch ceiling.jpg|thumb|A haint blue porch ceiling in the United States]]

'''Haint blue''' is a collection of pale [[Shades of cyan|shades]] of [[Blue-green|blue-green]] that are traditionally used to paint [[Engineering:Porch|porch]] ceilings in the Southern United States.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=https://today.com/home/what-haint-blue-here-s-why-southern-porches-have-blue-t115573 |title=Why do so many Southern porches have blue ceilings? |publisher=today.com |language=en |access-date=2019-10-02}}</ref><ref name="Kelleher 2018" /> Hex #D1EAEB is a popular shade of haint blue.

The tradition originated with the Gullah in Georgia and South Carolina. The ceiling of the slave quarters at the Owens–Thomas House in Savannah, Georgia, built in the early 19th century, was painted haint blue.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://connectsavannah.com/savannah/a-more-inclusive-and-nuanced-history/Content?oid=5362923 |title=A more inclusive and nuanced history |first=Jessica|last=Lebos |website=Connect Savannah |date=August 16, 2017 |access-date=2018-03-05}}</ref> The pigment was derived from crushed [[Indigo|indigo]] plants.<ref>{{cite book |title=Collection Highlights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9hntB4BJzIC&pg=PA45 |date=January 1, 2005 |publisher=Telfair Museum of Art; University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-933075-04-7 |page=45 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Indigo was a common source for haint blue prior to the [[History:American Revolution|American Revolution]], when indigo was a common crop for plantations in the American South, but the tradition survived well after the decline in [[Chemistry:Indigo dye|indigo dye]] cultivation.<ref name="Pinckney2003">{{cite book |first=Roger|last=Pinckney |title=Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZIKAAAACAAJ |date=January 2003 |publisher=Sandlapper Publishing |isbn=978-0-87844-168-6 |page=72 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The word ''haint'' is an alternative spelling of ''haunt'', which was historically used in African-American vernacular to refer to a ghost or, in the [[Unsolved:Hoodoo (folk magic)|Hoodoo]] belief, a witch-like creature seeking to chase victims to their death by exhaustion.<ref>{{OEtymD|haunt|access-date=February 26, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first= Katrina |last= Hazzard-Donald |title= Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL05AUXiW18C|date=December 30, 2012|publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn= 978-0-252-09446-0 |page= 207| via= Google Books}}</ref>

== Cultural significance ==
===Gullah culture===
Originally, haint blue was thought by the Gullah to ward haints, or ghosts, away from the home. The tactic was intended either to mimic the appearance of the sky, tricking the ghost into passing through, or to mimic the appearance of water, which ghosts traditionally could not cross. The Gullah would paint not only the porch, but also doors, window frames, and shutters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southernliving.com/home/colors/haint-blue|title=These are the Prettiest Shades of Haint Blue for Your Porch|last=Cribb|first=Betsy|publisher=Southern Living|access-date=February 25, 2018}}</ref> Blue glass bottles were also hung in trees to trap haints and boo hags.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lowcountry Life: The legend of the bottle tree|language=en|date=July 12, 2019|website=Explore Beaufort SC |url= https://explorebeaufortsc.com/lowcountry-life-the-legend-of-the-bottle-tree/ | access-date= November 21, 2020| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200314024727/https://explorebeaufortsc.com/lowcountry-life-the-legend-of-the-bottle-tree/| archive-date= March 14, 2020}}</ref><ref name=obscura>{{cite web|title=What the Color 'Haint Blue' Means to the Descendants of Enslaved Africans| language= en|date=January 14, 2020| first= Shoshi |last= Parks |website=Atlas Obscura|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-haint-blue-means-to-descendants-enslaved-africans?mc_cid=c6dbe17125&mc_eid=da5ec35174}}</ref>

As Gullah culture forcibly mingled with white southern culture, the custom became more widely practiced.<ref name="Kelleher 2018">{{cite web |url=https://www.theawl.com/2018/01/haint-blue-the-ghost-tricking-color-of-southern-homes-and-gullah-folktales/ |title=Haint Blue, the Ghost-Tricking Color of Southern Homes and Gullah Folktales |first=Katy |last=Kelleher |work=The Awl |date=January 16, 2018 |access-date=March 5, 2018}}</ref>

Additionally, not all Gullah identify with the belief that haint blue can ward off evil spirits, but the historical significance of indigo crops still applies. Many enslaved Africans of the Lowcountry and their descendants believed in the protective power of haint blue, but the cultivation of [[Indigo|indigo]] as a cash crop in colonial South Carolina to produce the dye also significantly depended on labor from the 18th-century [[History:Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]]. Indigo production declined in the Lowcountry after the US Revolutionary War and loss of exports to the British market, and indigo nearly completely disappeared after the advent of synthetic blue dye in the mid-19th century. However, producing and using indigo dye in art and artisanal crafts has been reclaimed in a Gullah movement with the intent to strengthen the Gullah community's connection to their ancestors' African culture, such as through educational workshops hosted by the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.<ref name=obscura />

===Bug deterrent===
The use of haint blue has lost some of its superstitious significance, but modern proponents also cite the color as a spider and wasp-deterrent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/its-a-southern-thing-why-so-many-porch-ceilings-are-blue/2017/06/12/f6299014-3b3a-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html |title=It's a Southern thing: Why so many porch ceilings are blue |first=Jura |last=Koncius |newspaper={{wipe|The Washington Post}} |date=June 13, 2017 |access-date=February 25, 2018}}</ref> However, the color has not actually been scientifically shown to stave off bugs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5645263 |title=Why So Blue? Color Graces Many a Porch Ceiling |first=Michele |last=Norris |work=All Things Considered |publisher=NPR |date=August 14, 2006 |access-date=February 25, 2018}}</ref> The associated repellent effect may stem from the use of milk paint containing [[Chemistry:Lye|lye]], which does act as an insect repellent.<ref name="Kelleher 2018" />

===Aesthetics===
The blue color is appreciated from an aesthetic standpoint for mimicking the color of the sky.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

==See also ==

* [[Robin egg blue]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}{{Hoodoo}}{{Shades of cyan|Haint blue }}
{{Color topics}}

[[Category:Shades of blue]]

{{Sourceattribution|Haint blue}}