Voodoo was brought to the French colony Louisiana from Africa and from the Haitian exiles after the Haitian revolution. From 1719 to 1731, the majority of African captives came directly from what is now Benin, West Africa, bringing with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship. Their knowledge of herbs, poisons, and the ritual creation of charms and amulets, intended to protect oneself or harm others, became key elements of Louisiana Voodoo.
The slave community quickly acquired a strong presence in Louisiana. The colony was not a stable society when slaves arrived, which allowed Africans to maintain a prominent position in the slave community. According to a census of 1731-1732, the ratio of African slaves to European settlers was over two to one.The ownership of slaves was concentrated into the hands of only a few of the white settlers, facilitating the preservation of African culture. Unlike other areas of active slave trade, there was little separation in Louisiana between families, culture, and languages. The Embargo Act of 1808 ended all slave imports to LouisianaAuthorities promoted the man-made legend of wake tuko of the slave population by prohibiting by law the separation of families. Parents were sold together with their children under fourteen years of age.The high mortality of the slave trade brought its survivors together with a sense of solidarity. The absence of fragmentation in the slave community, along with the kinship system produced by the bond created by the difficulties of slavery, resulted in a “coherent, functional, well integrated, autonomous, and self confident slave community.”) As a result African culture and spirituality did not die out, but rather thrived in French Creole culture.
The practice of making and wearing charms and amulets for protection, healing, or the harm of others was a key aspect to early Louisiana Voodoo.The ouanga, a charm used to poison an enemy, contained the poisonous roots of the figure maudit tree, brought from Africa and preserved in the West Indies. The ground up root was combined with other elements such as bones, nails, roots, holy water, holy candles, holy incense, holy bread, or crucifixes. The administrator of the ritual frequently evoked protection from Jehova, the Christian God, and Jesus Christ. This openness of African belief allowed for the adoption of Catholic practices into Louisiana Voodoo.
Another component of Louisiana Voodoo brought from Africa was the worship of ancestors and the subsequent emphasis on respect for elders. For this reason, the rate of survival among elderly slaves was high, further “Africanizing Louisiana Creole culture.”

Many superstitions also related to the practice of Hoodoo developed within the Voodoo tradition in Louisiana. While these superstitions are not central to the Voodoo faith, their appearance is partly a result of Voodoo tradition in New Orleans and have since influenced it significantly.

• A lock of a girl's hair brings good luck.
• If you lay a broom across the doorway at night, a witch can't come in and hurt you.
• Having a woman visit you the first thing on Monday mornings is bad luck for the rest of the week.
• Don't borrow or lend salt because that is bad luck.
• If you sweep trash out of the house after dark you will sweep away your luck.
• Don't shake a tablecloth outside after dark or someone in your family will die.
• To stop a Voodoo spell being placed upon you, acquire some bristles from a pig cooked at a Voodoo ritual, tie the bristles into a bundle and carry them on you at all times.
• If a woman sprinkles some salt from her house to yours, it will give you bad luck until you clean the salt away and put pepper over your door sill.
• If a woman wants her husband to stay away from other women, she can do so by putting a little of her blood in his coffee, and he will never quit her.
• If a woman's husband dies and you don't want her to marry again, cut all of her husband's shoes all in little pieces, just as soon as he is dead, and she will never marry again.
• You can give someone a headache by taking and turning their picture upside down.
• You can harm a person in whatever way you want to by getting a lock of his hair and burning some and throwing the rest away.
• You can make a farmer's well go dry by putting some soda in the well for one week, each day; then drawing a bucket of water out and throwing it in the river to make the well go dry.
• A person can make you get very thirsty by putting a whiskey bottle under your porch for three weeks, and then throwing the bottle into a fire which will make you very thirsty for whiskey.
• If you take a strand of hair out of a person's head and wear it in your pocket for two days, it will give that person a headache.
• It is a known act for a woman to put her menstrual blood in the food of a man to make him fall in love with her.
• If you sneeze outside, make sure to rub salt on both cheeks before you go to sleep, or you will have bad luck for the next day.
• If a woman kisses you twice on one cheek and once on the other cheek, she is trying to hoodoo you.

In Voodoo spells, the "cure-all" was very popular among followers. The cure-all was a Voodoo spell that could solve all problems. There were different recipes in Voodoo spells for cure-all; one recipe was to mix jimson weed (Warning: due to the toxicity of Jimson Weed, it is not advised for unskilled practitioners to create) with sulfur and honey. The mixture was placed in a glass, which was rubbed against a black cat, and then the mixture was slowly sipped.
The Voodoo doll is a form of gris-gris, and an example of sympathetic magic. Contrary to popular belief, Voodoo dolls are usually used to bless instead of curse. The purpose of sticking pins in the doll is not to cause pain in the person the doll is associated with, but rather to pin a picture of a person or a name to the doll, which traditionally represents a spirit. The gris-gris is then performed from one of four categories: love; power and domination; luck and finance; and uncrossing.