The White Witch is the story of a haunting in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

.

History

The story states that the White Witch was Annie Palmer, who was born in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

. She later moved to Jamaica, where she was married to John Palmer in 1820. As an adult, she reportedly stood 4'11".

John was the owner of Rose Hall Plantation, east of Montego Bay

Montego Bay

Montego Bay is the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the fourth by population .It is a tourist destination with duty free shopping, cruise line terminal and the beaches...

. Annie's husband (and two subsequent husbands as well) died suspiciously, and it is speculated that Annie herself brought about their demise. Annie became known as a mistress of voodoo, using it to terrorize the plantation, and taking male slaves into her bed at night and often murdering them.

She is also supposed to have dispatched her lovers allegedly because she was bored of them. Assuming this is true it would make Annie an extreme example of a clinical psychopath although the stories are speculation at best. The legend has her being murdered in her bed during the slave uprisings of the 1830s

Baptist War

The Baptist War, also known as the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831–32, was a 10-day rebellion that mobilized as many as 60,000 of Jamaica's 300,000 slave population...

 by one of her slave lovers.

Rose Hall is widely regarded to be a visually impressive house and the most famous of the Great Houses in Jamaica. It is a Georgian mansion with a stone base and a plastered upper story, high on the hillside, with a panorama view over the coast. Built in the 1770s, Rose Hall was restored in the 1960s to its former splendor, with mahogany floors, interior windows and doorways, paneling and wooden ceilings. It is decorated with silk wallpaper printed with palms and birds, ornamented with chandeliers and furnished with mostly European antiques. There is a bar downstairs and a restaurant. Presently, Rose Hall is a museum for tourists who wish to see where Annie Palmer ate, slept and also areas of the house where she is said to haunt. Possible areas where the murders took place, e.g in her bedroom where she suffocated one of her lovers with a pillow. But the investigators of Ghost Hunters International

Ghost Hunters International

Ghost Hunters International is a spin-off series of Ghost Hunters that airs on Syfy. The series premiered on January 9, 2008...

 did not find any paranormal clues.

Rose Hall is also known for holding seances to try and conjure her spirit and gain answers about the mysterious deaths of her husbands and fanciful legends of underground tunnels, bloodstains and hauntings that surround it. There is little evidence to support the legend other than a version written by H. G. de Lisser in his 1928 novel The White Witch of Rose Hall.

An investigation of the case in 2007 by Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer, former editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language magazine Pensar, which was published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine Skeptical Briefs newsletter, Discovery News, LiveScience.com...

 showed the case to have been based on a fictional story.

Refurbishment

Rose Hall was bought in 1977 by former Miss USA

Miss USA

The Miss USA beauty contest has been held annually since 1952 to select the United States entrant in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operates both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA...

 Michele Rollins

Michele Rollins

Michele Rollins was a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for the United States House of Representatives election in 2010, in Delaware's At-large congressional district, a race she narrowly lost to Glen Urquhart...

 and her entrepreneur husband John Rollins

John W. Rollins

John W. Rollins was an American businessman and politician from Greenville in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party, and served as the 14th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware....

. They refurbished Rose Hall at great personal expense and conceptualised a tour that showcase Rose Hall's slave history, antique splendor and original fittings.

Rose Hall was bought in 1977 by former Miss USA Michele Rollins and her entrepreneur billionare husband John Rollins. They refurbished Rose Hall which cost an estimated $2.5 million, to conceptualise a tour that showcase Rose Hall's slave history, antique splendor and original fittings.

Tourists can tour the halls of Rose Hall as it is now a museum. It also has a night tour with re-enactments of the story line consistent with the published book.

External links

• Description and photo of the house as a modern tourist site
• History of the house and modern tourist site