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Slavery: Race and Ideology in Southern

Tiya Miles
Plantation Museums (Washington, D.C.,
2002), which documented the absence and
trivialization of African American lives and
experiences at historic sites across the
South. In the intervening years
interpretative content about African
Americans at southern sites has increased
substantially through a relatively new type
of tour: the ghost tour. In Tales from the
Haunted South: Dark Tourism and
Memories of Slavery from the Civil War
Era, Tiya Miles explores this phenomenon,
focusing on the Sorrel-Weed house in
Savannah, Georgia; the Madame Lalaurie
house in New Orleans, Louisiana; and
Myrtles plantation in St. Francisville,
Louisiana. Miles’s interest in this subject
developed on a tour of the Sorrel-Weed
house. There she heard a horrible yet
Search
beguiling story about a male enslaver and
Molly, an enslaved woman, that ended with
the suicide of the enslaver’s wife and
Molly’s murder. The ghosts of these two
women haunted the house, the guide
claimed, and an evening tour told these
ghost stories. As Miles recounts it she
“could not let the terrible story go,” and so
she returned that night to hear the
“supernatural story” (p. xvi).At each of
these sites, visitors hear claims (often,
Miles contends, unfounded) about
enslaved African Americans whose ghosts
haunt the premises. These stories, Miles
argues, allow people to maintain a “safe
distance” from history, which both gives

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listeners more room to imagine the horrors

of slavery and enables them to avoid
facing the consequences of such accounts
by relegating the stories to the realm of
“fancy” (p. 7). Although African Americans
play significant roles in these tours, Miles
concludes that “ghost tourism at historic
sites of slavery appropriates African
American history in a way that outweighs
the value of inclusion’· (p. 123 ). She
observes, for example, a troubling pattern
in the ghost tours’ reliance on African
American religious expression-most often
Voodoo but also the beliefs of Gullah and
Geechee people-“to increase the level of
threat and titillation” (p. 119). These
elements convey nothing about the
complexity of the religious beliefs that have
played a critical role in constructing black
identity in America.

Tales from the Haunted South is a page-

turner, as Miles describes both the tours
and her own apprehensive feelings as she
ventured out to historic sites after dark to
hear these scary stories. It is appropriate,
then, that Miles considers why ghost
stories are so beguiling. Her conclusion
resonates far beyond sites associated with
slavery, observing that “ghosts represent
history in a way that feels like magic. [T]he
ghost story is an intensified version of the
magic- of historical interpretation writ large-
the weaving of words, ideas, and events
into a pseudo-spell that can spirit us back
to days gone by” (p. 125). Finding ways to
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connect visitors with the past is a noble

goal, but historic sites must be mindful of
costs that can be associated with these
methods.

The tours that Miles experienced made

clear the problems with how historic sites
have incorporated African American history
into ghost tourism. At the same time,
African American experiences far too often
continue to be excluded altogether from
other kinds of tours offered at historic sites.
In the tradition of Eichstedt and Small’s
work, Tales from the Haunted South should
serve as a call to historic sites to undertake
the hard work of telling complex stories
about the past that enable visitors to gain a
deeper understanding of the complexity of
African American lives under slavery. I
highly recommend the book to public
historians, scholars of slavery and its
current-day legacies, and anyone
interested in the gothic South.

– REBECCA K. SHRUM, Indiana

University – Purdue University
Indianapolis. The Journal of Southern
History, Volume LXXXlII. No. 1, February
2017

Tiya Miles’s book is a lively and

entertaining first-person account of
ghost tourism” in the Deep South. Miles,
an African American who teaches at
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the University of Michigan, grew up in the

Midwest. She encountered a
gripping phenomenon called “ghost
tourism” while taking a “Ghost Tour” at the
antebellum Sorrel-Weed House in
Savannah, Georgia. The tale of Molly, a
young slave who was the mistress of the
home’s owner and was found hanged in
her quarters, captured Miles’s imagination.
Subsequently, Miles explored the
Deep South’s antebellum house museums
and ghost-story literature, in which
deceased black slaves, most of them
women, haunt homes and attract
enthusiastic, diverse tourists. In addition,
Miles studied the tortured slaves haunting
the house of Madame Lalaurie, a cruel
mistress residing in the New Orleans
French Quarter, and slave ghosts Chloe
and Cleo at The Myrtles plantation in St.
Francisville, Louisiana.The author has a
pragmatic attitude toward ghosts and does
not completely discount the “spirit world.”
She acknowledges that past African
Americans believed that ghosts were real
and dangerous and admits that she writes
about history because she is haunted by
the people. In her book The House on
Diamond Hill (UNC Press, 2012), a history
of the antebellum plantation of Cherokee
slave owner James Vann, Miles invented a
slave ghost to convey “the integrity of our
ancestors” (p. 132).

This book reveals two sides to ghost

tourism, a subset of so-called
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“dark tourism,” which caters to a growing

fascination with death, disaster, and
suffering. In the context of black history,
ghost stories satisfy our craving for
knowledge about the little-known lives of
enslaved people. Miles notes that books
and tours featuring slave ghosts are often
the only venues that make black history
visible. The “dark” side to such tours is that
they tend to feature lurid,
sensationalized tales that promote racism.
Caricatures of sexually predatory “Jezebel”
slaves, comforting “Mammy” slaves, or
voodoo priestess slaves whose black
magic had a malevolent purpose distort
historical truth and undermine the dignity
and value of black history. Tourists become
voyeurs, alternately fascinated and
repulsed by spectacles of slaves subjected
to brutality from their owners or taking
revenge against their owners. Sometimes,
Miles herself may repeat the lurid details
a little too enthusiastically. Yet she shines a
valuable light on how we feel about
the Civil War and race, and on how the
ghosts of the past are still with us.

– M. Ruth Little, Longleaf Historic

Resources, North Carolina Historical
Review (April, 2016.)

Miles (Michigan) delves into an

increasingly popular topic within tourism
research—thanatourism. Situated within
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the context of contested histories

concerning slavery and the Civil War era,
the author examines “ghost tours” in the
South that range in destinations from
Savannah, Georgia, to New Orleans. Miles
highlights how African American history (as
conveyed through these tours) is
inaccurately represented for commercial
gain, hence perpetuating the exploitation of
African Americans through narratives
shared by guides and written texts
concerning the phenomena. Readers will
largely question where the realities of
slavery and the Civil War (as they pertain
to African Americans) are within the ghost
tours. Readers will no doubt need to
understand the balance between
commodification of death and the role that
slavery played (and continues to play) in
forming the history of the South. Imagery
portrayed within each story, as told by
Miles, will keep readers on the edge of
their seats in anticipation of the next
sentence, waiting to hear how each
narrative plays out. Libraries with
collections in tourism, southern histories,
ghost stories, cultural heritage of the
South, etc., should own a copy of this
work.

– K. M. Woosnam, Texas A&M University

(April, 2016.)

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As an interpreter and museum

professional, I was compelled by Tales
from the Haunted South and found Dr. Tiya
Miles’ ideas to be spot on. Her
interpretation of slavery and native
American history as being prime
candidates for ghost tourism is intriguing
because those subjects do haunt us as
Americans, but the invented narrative of
tragedy and gore is easier for people to
swallow than the everydayness and horror
of American chattel slavery. I was also
really interested in Dr. Miles’ point about
the way we commodify the tragedies of
invented black women, when real black
women were themselves commodified.
Congratulations are in order on an
engaging and thought-provoking book.

– Ashley Rogers, Director of Museum

Operations, Whitney Plantation

“WOW!” Rating
This book explores the popular yet
troubling phenomenon of “ghost tours.”
Frequently promoted and experienced at
plantations, urban manor homes, and
cemeteries throughout the South. “Dark
tourism” often highlights the most
sensationalist and macabre aspects of
slavery. Because the realities of slavery
are largely missing from the tours, they
continue to feed problematic “Old South”

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narratives and erase the hard truths of the

Civil War era. The ghosts of the past are
still with us today.”– Lone Star Book
Reviews (October, 2015.)

“In her captivating exploration of southern

ghost tours, Tiya Miles shows how spirits
act as guides to a troubled American past
and how they continue to raise the specter
of slavery today. This absorbing book
confirms that no matter how hard we try,
we can’t quite keep the past buried like we
used to.”

– Stephen Berry, University of Georgia

“Investigating southern fright culture, Tiya

Miles uncovers the connections between
antebellum nostalgia, African American
history, and mystical ideas about slavery.
Stories of Voodoo queens and scorned
lovers fuel this dark-tourist industry, while
the author sets the record straight.
Readers will find it impossible to put this
book down.”

– Daina Ramey Berry, University of Texas

at Austin

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