The White Witch of Rose Hall

Stories of old houses fascinate me. Legends and curses of places entombed by time and throughout history have become almost forgotten. Maybe it is just my refusal to move forward, or the past just speaks more to me in ways I could never understand, but all I know is when I see these places, a part of my heart feels alive, as if I’ve been there, as if I lived there. 

Weird as it gets, my life is an epitome of weirdness and paranormal interference. Call it a gift, call it a curse, call it both, but these “abilities” are a part of me that I can never ignore and through the years I have learned to live with it as it helps people in the process as well. 

I understand the dead more than I could understand the living. Their stillness, their essence, as they lie cold and lifeless is profounding and at the same time endearing to me. They haunt me but it’s a different kind of haunting. It’s a cry of help maybe, a calling that only I could hear. And when they do call, I have to answer because if I won’t, it will never stop until I will finally concede.

Here is a story of one of those old houses. The story of  The White witch of Rose Hall.

Located about 9 miles from Montego Bay, Jamaica, Rose Hall is the most famous home or building in Jamaica. This magnificent home was built in the 1770's. The legend surrounding this
historic residence is quite unusual.

Annie Palmer was not what you would call a sweet person, no, even though she owned a vast sugar plantation in Jamaica, she was for a fact the most sinister,
cruel and perhaps the most evil of her time.

In the 1700s, a woman's route to wealth and power was usually via marriage, and Annie Palmer was no exception. Born in France, Annie was a petite woman (barely 4 feet tall, it is said) who moved to the beautiful island of Jamaica to be the wife of a powerful man who owned Rose Hall and thousands of acres of sugar plantation. Little is known of her early days at Rose Hall. No one knew if she came to the island already imbued with a streak of cruelty, or if she cultivated it under the demands of her husband and her duties as the mistress of The Great House. It is said that she pined greatly for the bright lights of Paris, and found life on the island to be a hardship.

Whatever the cause, Annie was feared by the slaves who lived and worked in the plantation. She ruled with an iron fist, and defiance, even perceived insolence, was answered with public whippings, torture in the dungeon, or even death. Annie started her day by stepping into the small balcony of the house, issuing the orders of the day to the assembled slaves in the yard. Like a tyrant dictator, her orders often included punishments and executions.

Perhaps out of boredom, or sheer wantonness, Annie started taking slaves to her bed. When the Mistress of the House lavished her attentions on a slave, that man's days were numbered. When Annie becomes tired of her lover, she would murder him and have him buried in an unmarked grave. Little is known of her first husband, John Palmer, except that perhaps she murdered him in his bed as well. Maybe he caught her in the act, or maybe she just grew tired of him too.

These were rather lawless times, and the sudden death of the master of the estate didn’t rouse any questions or curiousness, it was never even investigated. 

Annie empowered the image of being a tough and merciless mistress, at least in part to keep her from appearing vulnerable. These were difficult times for a woman, particularly a rich widow in a country frequented by pirates and conquerors. Annie found another way to remain independent and in control... Voodoo.

Many of the slaves were practitioners of the art of sorcery and witchcraft, and in order to solicit favor and live longer, they taught Annie everything they knew about magic, particularly Voodoo. These included human sacrifice, particularly of infants, whose bones she used as a source of her power. 

Soon Annie was known far and wide as "The White Witch of Jamaica". Her reputation for ruthlessness and black magic served to keep her safe from those who would normally consider her a target. Even so, Annie found time and reason to marry two more husbands, which she eventually dispatched in a similar manner, acquiring their wealth thereafter. They may have been foreigners, unaware of Annie's dark reputation on the island.

Annie's Overseer was a slave known to be quite a powerful Voodoo practitioner, a fact he managed to conceal from Annie, at the risk to his own life. The Overseer had a daughter who was engaged to marry another handsome young slave on the plantation. Unfortunately, Annie's lustful eye fell upon the young man, and he was soon called upon to pleasure the mistress of the house. The Overseer knew what to expect, and began to make preparations to protect the young man
from Annie's "disposable lover" routine.

However, Annie did not follow her usual pattern, and she killed the young man that very night, instead of “enjoying” him for a week or so. Perhaps he objected to her advances and declared his love for his betrothed, and out of envy she murdered him. Whatever the reason, the young man was dead, the Overseer's daughter was grief-stricken, and the Overseer was filled with helpless rage.
Annie must die, at all costs.

A special grave was prepared in the woods, within sight of the Great House, using Voodoo ritual enveloped with a powerful curse. The Overseer then entered the house, confronting the White Witch, engaging in a magical and physical battle. He succeeded in killing her, sacrificing his own life in the process. Slaves who were privy to the Overseer's plan entombed the body of the White Witch in the specially prepared grave... a grave designed to keep her from rising and walking the plantation again.
But they failed to complete the ritual properly,
and the White Witch is said to roam the Great House to this day.