Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of racially motivated violence.

Root Magic is the story of how Jez learns about rootwork and its connections to her Gullah Geechee and African heritage. In it, she comes to understand that the traditions associated with the practice of rootworking keep her family’s traditions alive. They also become a way of protecting her home in world that is not willing to accept what it cannot understand. This sense of history and tradition gives Jez a new sense of herself, making her proud to be Gullah and proud to be able to provide for her family through rootworking. 

Royce quickly sets the tone in the novel by showing that rootworking is a natural part of Jez and Jay’s lives in South Carolina. Their grandmother and uncle’s practice of it is commonplace, and they are excited to learn. However, they don’t fully understand the depth of what they’re learning. By having Doc’s first lesson emphasize that “[i]f no one tells the stories anymore, if no one learns the magic anymore, our ways will disappear from the world,” they come to understand how important rootwork is to their heritage (19). Further, especially for Jez, this statement is most meaningful because she knows that Gran was a rootworker.