Halloween in North Carolina, Day #5: Ghosts of the Carolinas (1967)


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Roberts, Nancy. Ghosts of the Carolinas. University of South Carolina Press, 1962, reprinted 1967.


This is an older book by Nancy Roberts than the other one I reviewed, Ghosts from the Coast. Interestingly enough, I enjoyed this one a bit more. Maybe she ran out of steam (or material) toward the end of her career. It’s still not wonderful storytelling, and I found many of the stories forgettable, but it has its merits. Roberts’ then-husband contributed appropriately creepy photos and some stories put a bit of actual chill in the air.

Notable stories are the pirate treasure curse on Folly Island in Charleston, SC (Alan Brown retells a version of this legend from Louisiana in his book) and a “talking corpse” from a tavern in Old Salem, NC, as well as one tale about a door that just wouldn’t stay shut and a really creepy beach ghost known as The Grey Man, that predicts hurricanes for Pawley’s Island in South Carolina. And she retells a popular folk tale usually known as “The Witch Cat,” which likely hailed originally from the British Isles. There are also several plague tales from Savannah and Charleston, though those tend to run together in the memory.

Alas, there are still problems. If anything, Roberts is even more vague about dates and places in Ghosts of the Carolinas than in Ghosts from the Coast. Half the time, I couldn’t even tell what state we were supposed to be in. Her dialogue is atrocious. It is doubtful any human being ever spoke the way she has them speak, especially the few African Americans in her stories (who sound like Minstrel Show characters).

African Americans generally appear as window-dressing for her Lost Cause tales of doomed pairings of Southern belles with their gallant beaus, straight out of Gone with the Wind. But as people in their own right, with stories of their own to tell? Nope. Not even though “The Witch Cat” is a very big part of Carolinas African American folklore.

So, I can’t say I really recommend this one, either.


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