Sorry for the long winded story, but “Haints” do get my attention. I’ve never encountered one in all of my years, but still keeping an open mind. The old Spanish fort Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, the oldest and possibly most haunted city in America. Buy a fine art print. In Mississippi, haints could be ghosts, monsters, or even witches. Writer Matt Staggs says, "Just about everybody’s mamaw or papaw (southern for grandmother or grandfather) has a tale or two they can share about an old antebellum ruin, graveyard, or civil war battlefield said to have a haint attached to it." (5)

Bottle tree - The bottle tree originated in Africa and migrated to the US with the enslaved people. The bottles are said to catch wandering spirits at night, and hold them until they can be destroyed by the sunshine of daytime. The word "haint" is also used outside the low country, in other parts of the south, with slightly different aspects from region to region. It has been claimed that the Inn is haunted by the ghosts of ex-landlord Bill Claver’s wife and child. Guests have heard strange noises in the hotel, and on occasion there have been sightings of two ghostly apparitions.Other sources claim the word actually originated from the Welsh word haint, meaning infection, plague, or pestilence. Dean confronts the Witch, " An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch: The Wonder of the 19th Century, and Unexplained Phenomenon of the Christian Era" (1894) by M. V. Ingram, Library Collection. Our visiting paranormal event team bookings are managed by Nothe Fort’s resident paranormal advisor David Goulden of The Dorset Paranormal Research Team, who has worked with and conducted local research in Dorset for almost 20 years. To the best of my knowledge this is all true. Tears run down my face as i tell this today some 50 years later.

In the 2019 Netflix documentary " ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads - A Robert Johnson Story" it's suggested that the origination of blues guitar legend Robert Johnson's story of selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads may have morphed from his habit of practicing in a graveyard. According to the documentary, Johnson (a very mediocre guitarist at the time) sought help from Ike Zimmerman who was known as one of the best guitarists in Mississippi. Zimmerman instructed Johnson to practice in the graveyard where no one would complain about his terrible noise, and to sit on a gravestone and let the haints teach him how to play. Whatever Johnson did, it worked! The word ‘Haints’ in the 1941 movie King of the Zombies The 1941 movie King of the Zombies contains several mentions of the word “haints.” It’s not a great movie, nor is it really about ghosts, but it was interesting to hear the words “haints” and “hainted” used in the dialogue. Gate to Savannah's haunted Bonaventure Cemetery. Fine art photograph by Keith Dotson. Buy a print here. One online dictionary defines the word "haint" simply as a ghost. The tradition is more complex than that.

The first time I heard the word, “Haint”, was in 1969, while hunting in Mt. Olive, NC. It was a tradition on my father’s side of the family to small game hunt in Mt. Olive and surrounding areas. This time, I drove with my father and my hunting dog, Duke. A German Shorthaired Pointer. We My father loved to quail hunt. On this trip, my favorite, Uncle Ed, took the rabbit and coon dogs in his trailer. We departed Chester, PA at 10:00PM on Thanksgiving Eve to arrive at my Uncle Alonzo’s house at 7:00AM on Thanksgiving, the start of small game season.

Haints are restless spirits of the dead who, for whatever reason, have not moved on from their physical world,' says (Lori) Sawaya. One of the nation's most famous haunts is based on actual events —the Bell witch haunting of Adams, Tennessee. The Tennessee State Library and Archives briefly recounts the Bell Witch legend and other Tennessee ghost stories in this illustrated blog post, including the "rain of blood," and "spearfinger."

Photographs of some of the haunted places I have visited in the south

Denver-based motivational speaker Jonathan McMillan sent a great story fondly remembering his grandfather — a second-generation freed slave from a small town in Kansas. Cirencester’s wonderfully shabby chic Inn boasts nine delightful bedrooms to relax in and delicious wholesome dishes to enjoy. The Ragged Cot Inn has been serving patrons since the 17th century and is steeped in history with plenty of scary events that have occurred within its walls. I hunted with my Uncle Ed that day, my father took Duke and went to Faison to hunt with one of his old friends. That evening. they wanted to coon hunt, I passed on hunting that night. I was the one that drove to Mt. Olive. Haint blue, which can also be found on door and window frames as well as porch ceilings, is intended to protect the homeowner from being 'taken' or influenced by haints. It is said to protect the house and the occupants of the house from evil." (1)