Bristoe, an African American man residing in Johnston County, North Carolina, was enslaved by Samuel Smith. Bristoe was a practitioner of folk medicine, or a conjurer, and African Americans from throughout the local community came to Bristoe to receive medicines or to have him perform rituals. Bristoe faced trial before the local freeholders court in 1779 when he was accused of witchcraft. There, several enslaved people testified against Bristoe and explained the various services that he had performed for them. Through rituals or by tricking enslavers into ingesting certain substances, Bristoe claimed to be able to make enslavers sell enslaved people to certain individuals, or to make enslavers treat their enslaved people more nicely. The court found Bristoe guilty and sentenced him to thirty lashes as punishment. Any further records regarding this individual have not been located.