Haunted Charleston: Legends of the Boo Hag & Pirate Ghosts (Part 3)

Join host Kerry Simmons in the final installment of the Haunted Charleston series on "Everyday Eerie." Dive into the rich folklore of the Gullah culture with the tale of the Boo Hag, a skinless entity with glowing red eyes that haunts your dreams. Discover the protective power of Haint Blue, a color steeped in spiritual tradition to ward off evil spirits. Then, navigate the treacherous waters of history with stories of notorious pirates like Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, whose legacies still echo through Charleston's historical sites like the Battery and the Pink House. From spectral pirates to eerie apparitions, this episode blends cultural lore with ghostly encounters. Don't miss this spine-tingling journey into Charleston's past. Share your own ghost story at EverydayEerie26@gmail.com, and follow us on Instagram for more eerie tales.

Music and Sound Credits:
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Transcript

Hey, everyone. Welcome back. I'm your host, Kerry Simmons, and welcome to Everyday Eerie, the podcast where the ordinary meets the extraordinary. Dive into the world of ghost stories, haunted objects, eerie places and unsolved mysteries that will send shivers down your spine. Each week we explore the tales that blur the line between the living and the dead, the known and the unknown. So turn down the lights. Settle in and prepare to be spooked. this next episode is going to be part three to the Haunted Charleston series. So this is probably going to be the last part that I do for a little while, just so we can kind of jump ship and do something a little bit different. Touch on some other stories as well. But today we are going to be talking about first the boo hag and Gullah culture. So for the first story, it's important that I give you a little bit of historical context, because this is not as much a true ghost story as it is a bit of folklore from a specific culture that is very prominent and important here in South Carolina. So to better understand the context around the story, it's important that you understand more of the culture. Now, all of the information that I have here on the cultural background was found by watching local documentaries on South Carolina, on South Carolina based TV channels, with real interviews with locals who are a part of this culture to ensure accuracy. So for those of you who are not familiar, the Gullah Geechee culture refers to the group of people who were enslaved here, brought over from West Africa to the Sea Islands. Now, this expands from North Carolina all the way down to about Saint Augustine, Florida, with more of the Geechee culture down in Georgia and Florida and the Gullah culture being more prominent here in South Carolina. These people were thought to be descendants of the Angola tribe in West Africa, where it is thought that the word Gola originated from now the Angola tribe. They were rice growing peoples, so from this area of West Africa and they were seen as experts in this skill. Um, so were individuals who are from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia. Those were also big rice producing areas. And so therefore, these people were brought to this area to help to develop the rice fields in Charleston. So this group, along with some of the other other cultural groups brought here through the transatlantic slave trade, merged together in a sense which created this new culture called Gullah. So within this culture, there is even like a specific language that has developed, which is essentially similar to like an English based creole. And if you don't know the language, by learning through your ancestors, you wouldn't easily be able to identify what is being said. So this is a very specific part of the culture as well, and it still is today actually. Now, these people were assigned specific tasks, and once those tasks were completed, the rest of the day could be used how they chose. And they were pretty well left unbothered the rest of the year, which gave them time to practice their African way of life through cooking, singing, spirituals, which were specific types of chants that actually laid the foundations for jazz and blues here in America. Um, dancing and storytelling. So the importance of all this was to continue to pass down ancestral stories to the new generations. These were seen as important components of their ancestry and spirituality in general. So this is what brings us to two bits of folklore stemming from this Gullah culture. One is the boo hag, and the other is the tradition of haint blue. So the gulf of people believe that each person has a soul. And if you're a bad person, your soul stays behind and becomes a bug, which is essentially an ugly, skinless creature with a glowing red eyes. Now boo hags will come to people while they sleep, and are able to crawl in through small cracks in the foundation or the windows or the doors, and will often sit on your chest to suck out your soul. So folklore suggests that when you wake up feeling like you have had many hours of sleep but you don't feel rested at all, it's because you've been visited by the bug. Another sign that you may have been visited by the bug is when the air is hot and humid, and takes on a rancid smell. It means a bug is near. Now there are some things that you can do to ward off a bug, which include placing a broom outside of your bedroom door, because of course, the bug will be forced to stop and count the bristles, thus distracting them for a long enough time for you to make it till morning when they will turn to dust. And another way to ward them off is through the use of a color indigo blue. So painting your doors or windows to some extent with indigo blue would help in doing this. Or keeping glass bottles made from the color over the branches outside on a tree can help to trap them. So if you've ever been driving around and you've ever seen, like a tree or a bush that had glass bottles kind of over the stems, I always thought that this was just garden decoration, but this is actually and for some people, maybe it is. Maybe they don't know the story behind it. But traditionally this is actually used to ward off evil spirits because it's thought that indigo has these spiritual properties. The color indigo can suck in and trap evil spirits and contain them. So in having these bottles of indigo, the spirits get trapped in the bottle and are then unable to bother you. Now, Indigo was another cash crop that was really widely cultivated in Charleston, and really add added value to the South as it would be purchased by other northern cities. In this idea of indigo used to ward off spirits. Then came the idea of Haint, originally from At Angola, taking on the meaning of hunt in the English language. Blue so Haint blue, which essentially in the English language, if you think about the breakdown of it, becomes almost like haunt blue. So Haint blue is a robin's egg blue type color, and it was formulated originally by mixing this indigo with lime and other chemicals, and the blue was said to mimic the color of the sky and the sea, which would confuse evil spirits. So when you're in Charleston, and even in the surrounding areas, nine times out of ten you will step onto a covered porch. And when you look upwards, the top of the porch will be painted a haint blue so that if any evil spirits try to come in, they will either think that they have come to the sea and turn away, as they know that they're unable to cross water, or they'll continue flying upwards, thinking they're flying towards the sky. My porch ceiling is actually also a blue color, and I can attest to the fact that this still is a very widely used tradition today. Um, we had gotten our house built, and in this neighborhood, it's not even an option. You have to have your your porch, that color. It's not just something that we did. So it is, um, a superstition still here in Charleston, but, um, it came about from the Gulf culture and the idea of Indigo and Indigo's properties and, um, spiritual properties and the ability for it to ward off spirits. So now, the last little bit that we will be talking about in today's episode will be The Pirates of Charleston. So Charleston has seen its share of history between the multiple wars passing through here. But since it's a port city, it was also a really popular stopping point for pirates. And some of the most notorious pirates to set foot here were Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard. So Stede Bonnet was a pirate born in 1688, in Barbados. He was actually born to a really wealthy family and was very privileged in his day. Um, he took an interest in piracy, though, and he never really wanted to work the family business. But obviously, you know, it was that was frowned upon at that time. So he ended up taking over his father's sugarcane farm, and he made a ton of money doing so. He married a woman named Mary in 1709, and they ended up having three children together. He was all around very well respected and served in the islands militia, as well as as the justice of the peace for the town, and he was overall living a normal life, a life that was expected of him from from someone of his, of his background, until he, one day, after nine years of marriage, decided that he wanted to give it all up for a life of piracy. Some locals would say that he absolutely went insane as he signed legal papers allowing his wife and his friends to oversee all of his business affairs. And they had absolutely no idea that his plan was to go become a pirate. They thought that he was doing this because he was going to be gone for an extended extended business trip. But just in case something happened to him, they there would be someone to look over the business and to make sure that his family was taken care of. But in his mind, he was signing this all over as a way of giving it up and saying goodbye to his old life so that he could begin his new life of piracy. So with some of his fortune, he purchased a ship. He named it the revenge, and he paid a crew and set sail in the open sea. The only problem with this plan was that he was a terrible pirate. He knew nothing about actually sailing a ship or how to pillage and plunder. Though this is not to say that all his endeavors were unsuccessful. I mean, mostly thanks to his crew of people who actually were pirates. They were able to plunder several ships until there was an encounter with a Spanish man of war which damaged the ship and left bonnet wounded. So when he was recovering in the Bahamas, this is where this whole kind of battle took place. He met a man named Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard. He was evil. He was scruffy. He was everything you expected a pirate to be. He was really good at stealing and making threats. And bandit knew he that he was just what he needed. Blackbeard was someone that he could he could use. Um, this was the type of guy that he needed on the ship to help guide him. So Blackbeard stepped in as captain while bonnet was recovering, and together they would go on to plunder about ten or more ships. Um, this time it was a lot more successful because Blackbeard was essentially leading the way. Now, they parted ways after this until about March of 1718, when Blackbeard basically convinced bonnet to make him like permanent commander of the ship. Um, because Bonnet's crew was just not happy with his incompetence and they were planning a whole mutiny. So in exchange, Vernet would be allowed to remain on the ship, not be bothered by the crew. He would be untouchable by the crew, and he would be able to just enjoy the life of piracy without the pressure of having to captain a ship. So Barnett thought this was great. This is a great idea. So together they headed for the Port of Charleston in May of the same year. And it was here where they would steal from incoming and outgoing ships, and they would take hostages and just kind of wreak havoc on the town. They would steal from the town. But they were not always actually on the hunt for gold and money. In fact, one of the most popular items for them to steal were boxes of medication, specifically syringes and a mercury. This was because syphilis was actually running rampant on the ship, of course. And the only way to to quote unquote, cure it at the time was to inject oneself through the urethra with mercury. They even even coined this phrase, quote A knight with Venus, a lifetime of mercury, which represented how the adult acts of one night would often lead to this need for mercury for the rest of their lives, due to the likelihood of contracting syphilis from that encounter. Now, after several more instances with other pirates, the governor was really becoming fed up with all of the havoc as the pirates were wreaking and the navy was called out to deal with the problem. So then there was obviously a battle between the Navy and the pirates, and this went on for about six hours. When the pirates finally surrendered, though, bonnet escaped and he hid out in nearby Sullivan's Island for a couple of weeks until he was recaptured and brought back to Charleston to hang at the gallows with the rest of his crew. So if this goes to show how bad of a pirate you know he he was, he escaped. He goes to Sullivan's Island, which is is nearby. But in the day, everything is longer. You know, it's harder to get to. So he. He created a decent bit of distance. There are no cell phones, there's no GPS. And he manages to get himself captured really easily, like two weeks later. So his, along with the bodies of the other pirates, would hang at what is now the battery. But this used to be called White Point. Um, and the bodies would hang for several days before being cut down and thrown into the mud at low tide so they could be washed away when the tide came in. So yeah, there the tide came in. So yeah, their bodies were just pretty well desecrated. I mean, they were just kind of thrown in the water and, uh, there was no proper burial or anything like that. So now also aboard Bonnet Ship and part of part of his crew was the infamous first known female pirate, Anne Bonny, who was an Irish immigrant from County Cork. And she was born in the 1600s. Now, upon moving to Charlestown, she married a pirate named William Bonney, who displeased her at some point, um, because he took up work with the governor. So that was just way too legal for the life of a pirate. She was like, no, no, no, when you became like, such a sissy, I'm I'm not going to be with any guy who is living, you know, living by by the law of the land. Okay, so when an had the opportunity, she she escaped and she ended up on Bonnet's ship. And this is where she met calico Jack, who's another famous pirate. So during the time when most of the crew members were hanged and was able to resist hanging as she told the governor that she was pregnant with Calico Jack's baby, and after this time she fled and she managed to hide under the radar for the rest of her life without any reports of what exactly happened to her. So, you know, at least one of them actually knew how to how to escape and manage to stay. Stay escaped. But it's interesting that there has been no other record of what's happened to her. Some say that she returned to a life of piracy, while others said that this was kind of the last straw, that she gave birth to her baby and decided to start to live a normal life and met a man who she ended up marrying. But none of that has been confirmed. No one's ever been able to say for sure. So during their time in Charleston, the Pirates for sure left a mark, but they continued to make their presence known both in the waters and along the battery where they were hanged, as well as at the Powder Museum, where they would go for gunpowder. And at the famous pink House, or the now famous pink House of Charleston, which acted as a sort of tavern and brothel in its day, making it a perfect home for pirates. And it's actually believed to be the oldest house in Charleston, so this home has seen a lot. Aside from just the pirate history, but it was a very well known place for pirates to hang out. So visitors to the pink House have even reported windows opening suddenly without wind outside, and the sound of footsteps throughout the home climbing the 300 year old steps. People have reported feeling very uncomfortable around the stairwell, as if there is a face peering at them from this area. Pirate apparitions have been seen also walking around the grounds of the pink House. Um, and also walking around the battery, which is one of the most prominent stories being that of a ghost tour who was touring this area, um, talking about the pirate history. And they actually witnessed firsthand an apparition hanging from a tree. The apparition was rocking back and forth as if he was struggling to break free, only for it to quickly just dissolve into mist right before their eyes. Now, the Old City jail is also said to be haunted by wandering pirates around the grounds, with the sounds of screams and moving chains heard from within the walls in which they, they and other unsavory criminals were housed. Now, ghost tours on the water are also available, with some reporting hearing the sounds of ships sailing nearby only to see no other ships within Eyeshot, while also hearing the guttural sounds of multiple men yelling back and forth to one another, as if the crew is still working together to man their ship. So that concludes our episode today on part three of Haunted Charleston. Be sure to check out my Instagram page, and don't forget to send a personal ghost story to Everyday Eerie, 26 at gmail.com. Thank you for joining me on this journey into the eerie and unexplained. I hope these stories captivated your imagination and that you will join me next time for more tales of the strange and supernatural. Until then, keep an eye out for the eerie in your everyday.