38 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com Behind the serenity and beauty of the exquisite Lowcountry landscape lies the story of a hallowed and sacred land, saturated with the suffocated screams of ghosts from the bygone plantation era. During the height of the cash crop culture, Georgetown County was home to more than 200 rice plantations, their fields tilled by the hands of African slaves. Mosquitos, alligators, water moccasins and tree stumps buried under the murky waters where the workers toiled posed dangerous and sometimes lethal threats. Hurricanes, war, fire and disease further imperiled the enslaved people as well as the landowners. Consequently, Georgetown County, checkered with countless gravesites both seen and unseen, has come to be known as one of the most haunted places in the country. Author of “Ghosts of Georgetown” Elizabeth Huntsinger wrote, “In the last two-and-a-half centuries, many individuals have died suddenly and unexpectedly here. It is believed that such a death causes a certain amount of energy to remain in the vicinity where the spirit left the body.” Further, “A spirit will always linger close to its earthly home, finding comfort in the intimate surroundings, even though the last interval of life may have been unhappy.” One reason for the concentrated number of local hauntings, Huntsinger speculated, is that “A place near the water, which makes it prone to dampness, is often more subject to spirit activity than drier areas.” She pointed out that not only is the area from Mount Pleasant through Georgetown County located next to the ocean, “It is virtually filled with the waters of the rivers that flow throughout its moist and fertile lands.” Secluded on the banks of one such waterway east of the Cooper is a plantation that the current owner, who wished to remain anonymous, inherited when his parents BY SARAH ROSE Creeps on the Coast East Cooper tales from the crypt our town
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