By Paula R. Stiles

Edgerly, Robert. Savannah Hauntings: A Walking Tourist Guidebook. Savannah (GA): See Savannah Books, 2005 (4th ed. 2009). ix, 126 pp. ISBN: 978-1-57087-749-0.

Chappas, Bess T. Savannah Ghosts and Other Stories. 2005. 36 minutes.

Savannah, Georgia in the U.S. is a city full of history and ghost stories. There is a whole cottage industry devoted to that history and those stories (since they are inextricably linked). Here are two representative examples, a book and a CD of tales.

Savannah Hauntings goes hand in hand with the tour I mentioned yesterday. The book is pretty short, clocking in at less than 140 pages. It consists of an introduction by Jess C. Henderson, some prefatory material, a map and two main sections. The first is a five-chapter section called “History” and the second is called “The Hauntings Walk”. It consists of 34 short chapters, a conclusion and a short list of the walking tours that SeeSavannah (the tour company) provides. There are four and the other three are in the daylight hours: Savannah Saunter, Homemade Thunder (a Civil War walk), and a Pirate’s Walk. The fourth, of course, is the Hauntings tour.

For its length (and considering that you hear a lot on the walk), the book packs in a surprising amount of information. It looks to be intended as an expansion of (or even a stand-in for) the tour (hence the reason why you can get a signed copy in conjunction with the tour). Some stories you hear on the walk, of course, like the tale of the little girl who shocked a visiting couple when she sat on a bed in a hotel and left an impression on the covers. There is also the story of the founding of a community of refugee Portuguese Jews in 1733, whose doctor helped save the original colony from an epidemic. Edgerly also went into great detail on the tour about the town’s epidemics and the four major fires that have destroyed most of the buildings in the Historic Quarter.

Others, however, are not mentioned on the tour. In the book, Edgerly relates a tale from the days when he was working riverboat tours where he had a ghostly experience and had to steer the boat away from it (Savannah is on a river). Another tale discusses the lynching of Rene Rondolia Asch, who may or may not have killed a young girl, in 1820. Still another mentions a ghost cat at Davenport House, the first old house to be saved by the Historic Savannah Foundation.

There are also intriguing sections on the African-American population of the city and the practice of dueling (also mentioned on the tour), as well as the usual collection of White Ladies and a remarkable number of little girl ghosts.

I’m a tad skeptical about the accuracy of some of the history outside of Savannah. The tour claims, for example, that bells to prevent premature burial were first put in graves during the Black Death around 1350. Actually, most European victims of the Black Death were buried in mass graves (in a shroud, if they were lucky, naked if they weren’t) that were not covered over until they were full. So, there was little need for concern about premature burial in that period. Such fears (and devices like the bells to allay them) only date to the 19th century.

Still, a lot of the Savannah history in the book seems pretty reliable and even revealing. I knew that there were some venerable Jewish communities in the South, for example, but I hadn’t known about the community in Savannah. As for the tour’s approach to African-American history, Gone with the Wind it’s not. Perhaps it’s a bit on the sensational side, with all of the talk about witch doctors, but at least it doesn’t try to Disneyfy one of the nastier sides of Savannah history and you do learn something about how voodoo worked in Savannah.

Bess T. Chappas’ Savannah Ghosts and Other Stories is a CD consisting of seven stories and some end music: Hampton Lillibridge House, Bonaventure Party, Never Sit on a Grave, Laura, Awesome Possum, Mrs. Habersham, and The Cake. Only the first four are ghost tales while the others are cute, original stories about Savannah life. Chappas is a professional storyteller and these stories seem aimed at a young audience. They might be somewhat less satisfying for adults.

The first tale is about a house that began to be haunted after it was moved by Jim Williams of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame (Savannah Hauntings also has a chapter on it). The Hampton Lillibridge House was one of the few houses that survived the city’s 1820 fire. The second story is about a house that did not survive fire, but the party that was going on the night it burned down apparently continues in Bonaventure Cemetery to this day, two hundred years later. The third is the urban legend of the girl who sits on a grave and accidentally scares herself to death. The fourth is a first-person version of the Phantom Hitchhiker tale.

Of the remaining three stories, the first is the author’s tale about rescuing a young possum she accidentally hit with her car. The second is about an elderly woman who has an adventure with her dog, Peanut. The last one is about three brothers who try to decide who will get a piece of cake.

Chappas tells her stories with panache, but if you’re looking for just ghost stories, you’ll want to concentrate on the first two and maybe the fourth. These have the strongest roots in Savannah folklore.

You can order Savannah Hauntings on the tour’s site or buy it as part of the tour when in Savannah. You can buy Savannah Ghosts and Other Stories from several sites, including this one. The store that does the Hauntings Tours also sells it.

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