South Carolina Myths And Legends

Part of our ever-popular Legends of America series, South Carolina Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in South Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in South Carolina history.

Part of our ever-popular Legends of America series, South Carolina Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in South Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in South Carolina history. Stories include tales told to Ferdinand de Soto in the 1540s about a secret source of gold that the Spaniards never found; the 1927 disappearance of a daring young aviator, Paul Redfern, who pioneered the first air route to South America; and the mysterious appearance of horses from a noble Spanish equestrian bloodline on the beaches of South Carolina.

Part of our new and growing Mysteries and Legends series, Mysteries and Legends of South Carolina explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in South Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in South Carolina history.

"From horse thieves to hurricanes, from shattered Southern myths to fractured family ties, from Nashville to Myrtle Beach to Miami, Low Country is a lyrical, devastating, fiercely original memoir" of one family's changing fortunes in the Low Country of South Carolina (Justin Taylor, author of Riding with the Ghost). J. Nicole Jones is the only daughter of a prominent South Carolina family, a family that grew rich building the hotels and seafood restaurants that draw tourists to Myrtle Beach. But at home, she is surrounded by violence and capriciousness: a grandfather who beats his wife, a barman father who dreams of being a country music star. At one time, Jones's parents can barely afford groceries; at another, her volatile grandfather presents her with a fur coat. After a girlhood of extreme wealth and deep debt, of ghosts and folklore, of cruel men and unwanted spectacle, Jones finds herself face to face with an explosive possibility concerning her long-abused grandmother that she can neither speak nor shake. And through the lens of her own family's catastrophes and triumphs, Jones pays homage to the landscapes and legends of her childhood home, a region haunted by its history: Eliza Pinckney cultivates indigo, Blackbeard ransacks the coast, and the Gray Man paces the beach, warning of Hurricane Hazel.

"This booklet, which contains sixty-six stories selected from several thousand manuscripts totaling over 2,6oo pages of folk materials, gives a good cross section of the tales told about animals and supernatural beings in South Carolina." From a review by: Thelma G. James, California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jul., 1943), pp. 235-236.

This new collection of eighty strange and unusual South Carolina legends is rooted in the state's deep history. Some originated centuries ago, such as the Agnes of Glasgow story in Camden and that of the ghostly dwarf jester Gauche, said to haunt a Beaufort mansion. Certain places hold secrets from different eras, including White Wolf Road in Blacksburg and the state's numerous historic cemeteries like the one at Salem Black River Church in Mayesville. These pages also contain simple explanations for local lore, like the Gullah tradition behind blue bottle trees that still decorate Carolina gardens today. These and many more crowd-pleasing yarns can be found in this volume from the desk of master storyteller, author and researcher Sherman Carmichael.

Nancy Roberts has often been described to as the "First Lady of American Folklore" and the title is well deserved. Throughout her decades-long career, Roberts documented supernatural experiences and interviewed hundreds of people about their recollections of encounters with the supernatural. This nationally renowned writer began her undertaking in this ghostly realm as a freelance writer for the Charlotte Observer. Encouraged by Carl Sandburg, who enjoyed her stories and articles, Roberts wrote her first book in 1958. Aptly called a "custodian of the twilight zone" by Southern Living magazine, Roberts based her suspenseful stories on interviews and her rich knowledge of American folklore. Her stories were always rooted in history, which earned her a certificate of commendation from the American Association of State and Local History for her books on the Carolinas and Appalachia.

History, Mystery, and Romance in the Carolina Lowcountry! A haunted necklace, a trickster rabbit, an ingenious slave, a shrieking droll, and a fianc returned from the dead all come to life in Lynn Michelsohn's new collection of Carolina Lowcountry ghost stories and folklore from the four historic rice plantations making up Brookgreen GardensSouth Carolina's popular tourist attraction near Myrtle Beach. These enchanting folktales, tied to specific plantation locations and historical events, enrich the enjoyment of any visit to the Lowcountry for tourists, armchair travelers, or devotees of ghost stories and folklore. Lynn Michelsohn, a tenth generation Carolinian, is clearly drawn to history, mystery, and romance wherever she finds it, as her previous book, "Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!" explores intrigues of a different kind. Now, in "Tales from Brookgreen" her charming retelling of these sometimes-eerie, sometimes-sad, sometimes-humorous tales engages readers in characters and folkways unique to the Carolina Lowcountry.

A child accidentally entombed alive and abandoned to die, the heartbroken ghost of a tormented teenage girl bullied by her brother, corpses of decapitated soldiers, and cursed pirate gold: South Carolina has its haunts! Join a retired homicide investigator and founder of the company Lost in Legend, Bruce Orr, as he investigates the history behind the hauntings and the facts behind the folklore of South Carolina's coastal legends. Read 14 in-depth accounts that provide historic context important to local myths, folklore, and legends, as well as the paranormal outcomes and current research and beliefs that still shroud the state. Visit Edisto Island's Legare Tomb, Alice Flagg of Murrells Inlet, Blackbeard's blockade of the Charleston Harbor, and more. You may know the legends, you may have seen the ghosts; now learn the facts behind the events.

Meet . . . ~ the shrieking spirit of Crab Boy lost forever to a fierce Murrells Inlet marsh creature . . . ~ an ingenious slave matching wits with his plantation owner . . . ~ the unique inhabitants of isolated Sandy Island in the Carolina Lowcountry . . . These are the "ghosts" of African-American Gullah culture once so alive on plantations along the coast above and below Charleston, South Carolina. This brief collection (10,000 words, seven illustrations, 84 pages in paperback) of charming Gullah folktales includes one actual ghost story, “Crab Boy's Ghost,” local history and folklore, and notes on Gullah history and culture. An excerpt from her book Lowcountry Ghosts is also included. These selections are also included in Lynn Michelsohn's longer collection, Tales from Brookgreen with its accounts of ghosts, romantic heroines, historical characters, and mysterious visitors to Murrells Inlet in the Lowcountry surrounding Charleston, South Carolina.