The Jamaican form of voodoo's ritual arcane power seeped out and partially migrated slowly from Jamaica to be transformed in Haiti to a power centered in hurt,not that the Hatian sorcerers are evil but they practice a form of arcane voodoo that is centered in pain which they needed to break the grip of a powerful evil spirit in which the colonialist were infected with, that tradition migrated to New Orleans were I currently live(when you attain the level of magus voodoo practioner you can draw power from bastions of mystical energy and therefore can create more powerful and complex spells) ,were it was molded into a more subtle magical force but still just as vicous to fight evil spirits,the reason for the subtleness has its roots in the high priestess's that practiced and still pactice it to this day,few men were alowed to invoke obeah magic in New Orleans because of the tradition of slavery that evolved ,the Europeans in America learned of the power from their more civilized cousins in Jamaica who had already dealt with the black art in the West Indies and knew its power ,so any known male practitioners in New Orleans were dealt with not by prison like in Jamaica but with death,in fact even women were not allowed to practice obeah magic,only a select few of shall I say priveleged mulattos and quatroons, they were aware of the voodoo spells through family ties and were passed on bits and pieces of the dark magic and because of their great beauty in the eyes of the ruling class were allowed to dally and practice the powerful vooddoo magic mostly unscathed,but even they had to practice their art in secrecy not wanting to risk being punished by their masters.This is partially the reason why New Orleans Voodoo is not as refined and lacks the depth of knowledge of Obeah magic practiced in the West Indies,Obeah is more a kin to Ayur-Veda ,the ancient East Indian tradition of healing .Books You Might Enjoy:
William Phelon - Our Story Of Atlantis
Thomas Potts - Discovery Of Witches
Anonymous - History Of Witchcraft Vol 7 Of 7