Rose Hall in Jamaica (Photo: Emily O’Dell)
On my last night in Jamaica, I drove one hour from Round Hill to Rose Hall, a former plantation said to be haunted by the ghost of Annie Palmer, a woman who is believed to have murdered her husbands and tortured/murdered many slaves. It’s set up as a haunted house, and it was very well done with the ghosts of Annie Palmer and the slaves giving everyone (but me) a real fright.
Fugitive history at Rose Hall (Photo: Emily O’Dell)
The group I went with (Americans and Jamaicans) kept screaming and jumping in fright since we couldn’t see the spooks coming–there was no way to anticipate them (it was brilliant, really). One American woman got so spooked she hid in the back, and the person who freaked out the most was a beefy, macho southern white boy with a USA flag t-shirt who was in full meltdown mode because he couldn’t hide his vulnerability. After one big spook, he screamed “This is bullshit!” because he was so embarrassed by how he had jumped and screamed. He kept grabbing his girlfriend when jumping in fright, to which she kept responding: “Stop grabbing me!” It was hilarious–I’ve never seen someone so scared. Turns out Johnny Cash lived in the same neighborhood when he lived in Jamaica, and he even wrote a song about the White Witch–which you can listen to below. In my next blog post, I’ll take you to Johnny Cash’s house in Jamaica.
