It is clear that witch bottles were regularly employed in 17th-century New

England, but it is uncertain when their use waned. In the 18th century, official accounts

of witchcraft and magical activity did decline; however, the witch bottle custom appears

to have continued, spreading throughout the eastern United States. In the late 19th

century and first decades of the 20th century, American folklorists collected numerous

accounts of witch bottles and similar bottle charms that employed sharp objects such as

pins and nails, urine or other exuviae, and either heat, burial, or concealment. In 1877, a

white family in Georgia by the name of Proctor was known to keep a black bottle

containing iron nails buried under the front step in order to “keep witches off the place”

(Moore 1892:230). Browne (1958[9]:195) also recorded their use in Alabama in the

1950s: “Put your urine in a bottle and put pins in it and put it up the chimney. This will

reverse a hex. You must know the person who is hexing you.” In his Folk-lore from

Adams County, Illinois (1935), Hyatt recorded the use of witch bottles among several

local residents:

A man thought an old witch that lived in his neighborhood had bewitched his
kidneys, for he was having so much trouble with them. He suffered all the time.
So he thought he would get even with her. Someone had told him, that if you wet
in a bottle and hang it up where they cannot find it, they will suffer just like you
do. So he put a cork in the bottle, so it would stay strong, and hung it way up in
the chimney, then started a fire. If you do this, the soot will go right to the person
that has bewitched you and will stick all over you (the witch) until you take that
bottle out of the chimney. As soon as the fire was burning good, the soot flew
right over and just covered this old witch. Her kidneys got to hurting her so she
could not stand it. She went to this man and wanted to know what he had done,
and begged and begged him to take the spell off. Said she was suffering so she
could not stand it, and the soot would not wash off. He said to her, “You old
devil, I am going to torment you until you die.” And he did. This woman got so
she could not even pass her water. Even got black in the face, suffering so over
this bottle being up in the chimney. At last her bladder busted and she died. And
this man said she could not bewitch anyone else now (Hyatt 1935:543).

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