The White Witch of Rose Hall

There is nothing particularly frightening about a beautiful 4’10” Caucasian woman dressed in red galloping through the Rose Hall Estate in Montego Bay Jamaica. Nothing at all… Unless of course she’s been dead for hundreds of years, and she answers to the name Annie Palmer.

Legend has it that Annie was the bloodthirsty mistress of Rose Hall Estate. It is said that she was the second wife of plantation owner John Palmer. Unfortunately for John, he was the first of Annie’s three husbands to die of her hands.

Aside from having a taste for murder, Annie was feared by all for her voodoo practices, which she acquired from her governess while living in Haiti. This earned her the lasting nick name “The White Witch of Rose Hall.” Her male slaves had another reason to fear her. The white witch had white liver and frequently took her slaves to bed, mercilessly killing those that she tired of.

One version of the story says that she was killed by Takoo her slave lover, while another says that Takoo was a medicine man who forcibly took Annie’s life because she cursed his niece who was in love with Annie’s overseer. Whichever version is accurate, Annie is dead. All images of her were burned to make sure that her spirit could not live on through them. She was buried on the plantation in a raised concrete grave bearing three white crosses.

Ever since Annie’s death residents of Rose Hall say that they still see her late at night roaming through the Rose Hall area. Now me, me nuh fraid no jumbie*. I lived in Potters**, the village of 99 obeah man***, right side one graveyard and all. So I, the fearless one, went looking for Annie. My schoolmates and I took a guided night tour of Rose Hall Great House. The house has an eerie feel. It loomed over me ominously, bathed in an iridescent red light.

As fearless as I declared myself to be, no matter how much I told myself “I ain’t afraid of no ghost”, or  how many times I reassured myself that anything I saw during the tour was most likely scripted, I couldn’t help but feeling a little bubble of tense anticipation rising up in my stomach. I just never knew who or what to expect to pop up from where while I wasn’t paying attention. In the back of my mind I wondered, is Annie really here, what if she decides to make an appearance? Perhaps my voice may have joined the medley of my screaming schoolmates once…maybe twice but definitely not more than three times. It doesn’t matter though; I did the tour, had a memorable experience and lived to tell the tale.

In the full interest of journalistic disclosure, I must mention that writer and skeptic Radford Benjamin found Annie’s story to be just that, a story. He claims it to be based on a fictional character from a book written by Herbert G. de Lisser, a riveting tale that become immortalized as ‘fact’.

Image Credit: www.centerforinquiry.net

Whatever you choose to believe, the Rose Hall Great House is a beautiful Georgian home restored to greatness that includes much of its original furniture, artwork and charm.

Image Credit: Jamaica Tourist Board

 It is a Jamaican treasure, and the tours, day or night hold a promise for good fun. Locals and visitors alike should visit. I mean, who knows…you never know who or what you might see.

* jumbie- ghost

** Potters Village- a village located in St. Johns,Antigua, referred to by the locals as the home of 99 obeah practitioners

***obeah man- practitioners of an old religious practice passed down from Africa, usually associated with evil and dark arts

US! Big up CARIMAC and WJC every single time

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