The Myrtles Plantation — St. Francisville, LA (1796)

Status: Unverified — the ghost stories were promoted for tourism, and a scholar argues they reflect real violence against enslaved people.

The Myrtles Plantation was built in 1796 by General David Bradford. It was worked by enslaved people, and the house has changed hands many times since. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 and now operates as an inn with tours.

The house was already called “haunted” in a 1948 book of Mississippi ghost stories, and a 1960 Louisiana state publication said it was reputed to have at least one ghost. It later became heavily promoted as “one of America's most haunted houses.” The best-known tales, about women called Chloe and Cleo, are mostly told from the point of view of the owners. The scholar Tiya Miles has written that these stories are really about violence against Black women.

That is worth keeping in mind. The ghost stories are folklore built on a real history of slavery, and the historical record behind them is thin.

Sources: Wikipedia: The Myrtles Plantation

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