When one pictures the South, they often envision crêpe myrtles and magnolia trees bowing their ancient branches over boulevards. A slower-paced atmosphere coats the air, displayed in wrap-around porches and rocking chairs.
But beneath this languid setting, an eerie backdrop also lurks — ready to be conjured by images of sweeping plantations and sprawling cemeteries, where the ghosts of a former era drift along the balmy breeze.
Why Is the South Such a Hotbed for Ghosts?
The American South remains a region saturated with haunting tales. While it may present itself as a romantic destination on its surface, brimming with hospitality and sweet tea, behind its charming appearance lies an otherworldly air.
The South holds this nation’s oldest towns — centuries of history have piled up within its buildings and streets, sculpting a history layered with shadow. From specters of the Civil War to phantoms of forgotten eras, it remains a region soaked in mystery from top to bottom.
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
Charleston
While Charleston may be called the Holy City due to its many steeples and churches, its countless houses of worship cannot keep its dead at bay. Charleston’s history is one marked by bloodshed and conflict, having been stormed both by land and sea throughout its lengthy history. A city scarred by sieges, occupations, and violent battles, the city holds a legacy of patriots and prisoners, many of whom still linger within this storied city to this day.
Numerous buildings within Charleston date back centuries, carrying an ominous past that lies heavy within the structures’ bones. The Old City Jail bears a particularly menacing atmosphere, having contained over a century’s worth of pirates, murderers, and criminals, including the ghost of Lavinia Fisher, the first female serial killer in the U.S.
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon is yet another foreboding location popular on Charleston ghost tours. Used to house prisoners of war when the city was occupied by the British, it still harbors the eerie echoes of these colonial days in unsettling uniformed apparitions — but soldiers are not the only prisoners this residence has held. It also detained pirates awaiting execution and once stood as a regular setting for public slave auctions before the Civil War, leaving strange beings to plague this former trading post in odd orbs and wails.
New Orleans
The Haunted LaLaurie Mansion in NOLA – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
No one can speak of the South’s most haunted towns without mentioning the Crescent City. A colorful community steeped in vivid culture and morbid undertones, New Orleans remains one of the South’s spookiest gems. Legends of vampires and voodoo practitioners stalk its streets, while tales of ghostly plantations surround its outskirts, fashioning NOLA as a center vibrantly colored with macabre entities.
Here, stories of violent murders, victims of yellow fever, and otherworldly forces litter the streets as abundantly as beads after Mardi Gras. Its French Quarter is teeming with spirit-filled restaurants and ghostly hotels from the haunted Pontchartrain Hotel to Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which holds not only the spirit of the pirate-turned-patriot, but of an ominous pair of eyes that glow from the fireplace.
Of its many cities of the dead — a moniker used to describe its many burial grounds littered with above-ground tombs — there are several ghostly boneyards. New Orleans Cemetery No. 1 is the most famous, as it cradles the spirit of this magnetic city’s beloved voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Yet the most notorious of all its haunted locations might be the horrific atrocities that occurred within the LaLaurie Mansion, where seven slaves were held captive by a sadistic woman.
Annapolis
The Maryland Inn – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
Nestled near the Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis remains a city awash with spectral activity. As one of this nation’s oldest seaports, it maintains a pivotal history as a former capital city marked by tragedy and turmoil. Within this stately community, spirits riddle every structure from the majestic Capitol building to the U.S. Naval Academy, where the specters of mishap startle intruders with phantom footsteps and hair-raising cold spots.
Likewise, the Maryland Inn has ghosts all the way from the basement to the top story, the most famous of which lives on the fourth floor. Here, a spectral bride who would never see her wedding day paces in tense anticipation, awaiting her seafaring love who died in the street below.
The James Brice House is equally haunted. Not only was the namesake’s son murdered in this house, a woman’s body was reportedly found within the basement during renovations, revealing many spirits tied to this home.
Annapolis’ numerous 18th-century buildings swell with strange tales of ghostly shipmen lost at sea and tragedies that occurred upon its shores. This storied city has rooted itself as a town beset by specters, from the mischievous spirits of the Middleton Tavern to the headless ghost of Cornhill Street.
St. Augustine
Haunted St Augustine – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
While many may know St. Augustine as the oldest city in America, residents of this sun-drenched town also regard it as one of our nation’s most haunted. Founded in 1565, St. Augustine exists as the oldest European settlement continuously inhabited in this country, albeit one with a savage past.
Little would you know today by its bustling streets and shops, but this city’s dark legacy began with the massacre of hundreds of French settlers by the Spanish, hence the name of Matanzas Bay, or in Spanish, “slaughters bay.” Some say its waters still run red under the ghostly glow of the moon, as a gruesome reminder of a bloody past.
But this is far from this city’s only haunting memory. The St. Augustine Lighthouse holds the spirits of three girls who tragically died during the towering building’s construction. Their girlish laughter lingers on as the ghosts play hide and seek upon the lighthouse grounds.
This picturesque haunt lies in stark contrast to the Old Jail Museum. A site that confined prisoners, held hangings, and saw much suffering, it now harbors the irremovable echoes of pain in sinister shadows and unnerving activity. Yet not all St. Augustine’s stories are so grisly. There are also tales of ghostly loves within the St. Francis Inn, and an enterprising lady bootlegger who continues her duties at the Casablanca Inn.
Savannah
Haunted Savannah – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
The streets of Savannah may drip with Spanish moss and Southern charm, but after the sun sets, this timeworn town is run by the dead. Despite its friendly name, the Hostess City of the South has a grim heritage built atop many bones. Forcefully occupied by the British in 1778, the Siege of Savannah would occur a year later, leaving a debilitating scar on the fabric of this riverfront town. But casualties of war are not the only woes that this city has suffered.
Yellow fever epidemics also took a staggering toll on this community, wiping out ten percent of this city’s populace in 1820, only to be followed by numerous other plagues, fires, and disasters in the following decades. As such, Savannah remains a town steeped with lost souls, from its crumbling cemeteries to its many hotels.
Consider the Marshall House, a ghost-riddled hotel that served as a hospital for Union soldiers during the Civil War and twice more as a temporary medical facility during subsequent yellow fever epidemics. It’s no wonder its halls are filled with peculiar apparitions.
There’s also Colonial Park Cemetery, a ground that holds a reputation for voodoo ceremonies and displaced souls. Their bones forgotten and moved, these spirits now search eternally for their lost graves.
Spirits of the American South
The ghosts of this country’s past blanket the American South from coastal Annapolis down to the Sunshine State. Whether journeying to the Lowcountry or the Deep South, you’ll likely find a city home to countless spirits, just waiting to be revealed.
From the sweltering streets of Savannah to palm-lined St. Augustine, there’s likely an illuminating ghost tour you can take to immerse yourself in the spine-tingling history of this bewitching region, as long as you’re brave enough to seek it out.
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