The Haunting of Louisiana


Book Description

"To those who may be encountering Louisiana for the first time through these wonderful stories-prepare to be engaged and entertained to a degree to which you are certainly unaccustomed . . . Barbara's gift for storytelling holds in the written word just as it does before a television camera."-Phillip J. Jones, former secretary, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism "A personal, anecdotal narrative that paints events with evocative descriptions . . . best savored in slices-it serves up a great bedtime read."-New Orleans Times-Picayune Based on the PBS documentary of the same name that aired across the country, The Haunting of Louisiana highlights many of the stories that would not fit into the one-hour television program. Louisiana's haunted reputation is spotlighted in the twenty chapters that cover the ghostly escapades and happenings at Oak Alley Plantation, Ormond Plantation, Destrehan Manor, and America's "most haunted home," the Myrtles, in St. Francisville, to name a few. The book also includes behind-the-scenes incidents that occurred during the taping of the documentary. Who is the lady in the photograph whose mirrored reflection appears headless in a bedroom in Oak Alley Plantation? Why are little girls the only tour visitors to experience the taunting of Chloe, a slave and mistress of the owner of the Myrtles in the 1800s? Whose invisible hand had to be repeatedly pushed away from the owner's car horn at Chretien Point Plantation before the owner could get a good night's rest? The spine-tingling explanations for these events and many others are just waiting to be discovered.




The Haunting of Mississippi


Book Description

“Excellent . . . provides well-researched history as well as reports of recent unusual phenomenon” —from the author of Biloxi Memories (Southern Spirit Guide). The Hospitality State plays hosts to dozens of supernatural entities in this creeptastic guide to the other side. Chilling accounts of poltergeist activity include such landmarks as the McRaven House, where spiteful spirits smack guests without warning and an image of a Confederate soldier appears in contemporary photographs. A section on Anchuca in Vicksburg describes the vision of a woman in a fancy dress who floats through bedroom doors and the sound of dripping water without a source. Other establishments include Merrehope, King’s Tavern, and the Williams Gingerbread House. “Sucked me right in to Mississippi’s rich, haunted history. Sillery eloquently describes the settings of her stories, so I could easily visualize each of the places she writes about . . . At some points, I was scared out of my bones.” —Jackson Free Press




Ghost Hunter's Guide to New Orleans


Book Description

It’s not hard to find restless spirits in the Big Easy. Let the popular paranormal investigator guide you through its winding streets and history. Newly revised and updated, this installment in the much-acclaimed Ghost Hunter’s Guide Series is designed for locals, new residents, and travelers seeking the haunted history of the Crescent City and nearby locations. Detailed descriptions and historical background for more than two hundred locations guide readers to sites where they might encounter ghostly apparitions. Sites and spirits in the Garden District and French Quarter include the ghosts of voodoo priestesses, victims of yellow-fever epidemics, several well-known French Quarter restaurants, and the famous Lalaurie Mansion, thought to be the most haunted house in New Orleans. A section on City Park, the Faubourg Marigny, and nearby Chalmette, the site of the Battle of New Orleans, is also provided. A chapter dedicated to day trips suggests the paranormal possibilities awaiting travelers destined for the famous River Road plantations and Baton Rouge. Praise for Jeff Dwyer’s Ghost Hunter’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area “While sometimes scary, [the ghost stories] more often serve as reminders of the sometimes quirky, and oftentimes tragically haunting, history of the people of California.” —The Reporter (Vacaville, CA) “I thought I knew everything about the wine country, but I apparently overlooked the protoplasmic ‘walk by night’ world.” —Mick Winter, author of The Napa Valley Book




Tales from the Haunted South


Book Description

In this book Tiya Miles explores the popular yet troubling phenomenon of "ghost tours," frequently promoted and experienced at plantations, urban manor homes, and cemeteries throughout the South. As a staple of the tours, guides entertain paying customers by routinely relying on stories of enslaved black specters. But who are these ghosts? Examining popular sites and stories from these tours, Miles shows that haunted tales routinely appropriate and skew African American history to produce representations of slavery for commercial gain. "Dark tourism" often highlights the most sensationalist and macabre aspects of slavery, from salacious sexual ties between white masters and black women slaves to the physical abuse and torture of black bodies to the supposedly exotic nature of African spiritual practices. Because the realities of slavery are largely absent from these tours, Miles reveals how they continue to feed problematic "Old South" narratives and erase the hard truths of the Civil War era. In an incisive and engaging work, Miles uses these troubling cases to shine light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and how the ghosts of the past are still with us.




The Louisiana Purchase


Book Description

Chronicles the events which led to Jefferson's acquisition of Louisiana from Napoleon Bonaparte.




Spooky New Orleans


Book Description

Pull up a chair or gather round the campfire and get ready for creepy tales of ghostly hauntings, eerie happenings, and other strange occurrences under the New Orleans skies. Whether read around the campfire on a dark and stormy night or from the backseat of the family van on the way to grandma's, this is a collection to treasure.




The Haunted South


Book Description

Southerners love the South. And some souls never leave. Savannah, New Orleans and St. Augustine are among the most haunted places in America, and chilling stories abound nearly everywhere below the Mason-Dixon line. At Seaman's Bethel Theater in Mobile, Alabama, actors and staff are frightened by the unnerving sounds of a child's laughter. The ghost of Alfred Victor DuPont, a noted ladies' man, is said to harass female employees in the stairwell at DuPont Mansion in Louisville, Kentucky. The Café Vermilionville is housed in what is reputed to be Lafayette's first inn. A young girl in a yellow dress, thought to be a previous owner's daughter who died from polio around the time of the Civil War, startles patrons from the balcony of the restaurant. Join author Alan Brown as he traverses the supernatural legends of the American South.




The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America


Book Description

"From the Nazis to the new millennium"--Jacket.




Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans


Book Description

“He struck a match to look at his watch. In the flare of the light they saw a young woman just at Pitot’s elbow—a young woman dressed all in black, with pale gold hair, and a baby sleeping on her shoulder. She glided to the edge of the bridge and stepped noiselessly off into the black waters.”—from Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans Ghosts are said to wander along the rooftops above New Orleans’ Royal Street, the dead allegedly sing sacred songs in St. Louis Cathedral, and the graveyard tomb of a wealthy madam reportedly glows bright red at night. Local lore about such supernatural sightings, as curated by Jeanne deLavigne in her classic Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans, finds the phantoms of bitter lovers, vengeful slaves, and menacing gypsies haunting nearly every corner of the city, from the streets of the French Quarter to Garden District mansions. Originally printed in 1944, all forty ghost stories and the macabre etchings of New Orleans artist Charles Richards appear in this new edition. Drawing largely on popular legend dating back to the 1800s, deLavigne provides vivid details of old New Orleans with a cast of spirits that represent the ethnic mélange of the city set amid period homes, historic neighborhoods, and forgotten taverns. Combining folklore, newspaper accounts, and deLavigne’s own voice, these phantasmal tales range from the tragic—brothers, lost at sea as children, haunt a chapel on Thomas Street in search of their mother—to graphic depictions of torture, mutilation, and death. Folklorist and foreword contributor Frank A. de Caro places the writer and her work in context for modern readers. He uncovers new information about deLavigne’s life and describes her book’s pervasive lingering influence on the Crescent City’s culture today.




Haunted New Orleans


Book Description

Travel beyond Bourbon Street into the macabre history of one of the most haunted cities in the United States with the author of Wicked New Orleans as your guide. New Orleans—the Big Easy, the birthplace of jazz, home of Cafe du Monde and what some call the most haunted city in America. Beneath the indulgence and revelry of the Crescent City lies a long history of the dark and mysterious. From the famous “Queen of Voodoo,” Marie Laveau, who is said to haunt the site of her grave, to the wicked LaLauries, whose true natures were hidden behind elegance and the trappings of high society, New Orleans is filled with spirits of all kinds. Some of the ghosts in these stories have sordid and scandalous histories, while others are friendly specters who simply can’t leave their beloved city behind. Join supernatural historian Troy Taylor as he takes readers beyond the French Quarter and shows a side of New Orleans never seen. Includes photos!