Tales from the haunted South : dark tourism and memories of slavery from the Civil War era

Author/Creator:

Miles, Tiya, 1970- author

Publication/Creation:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2015]

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Tales from the haunted South : dark tourism and memories of slavery from the Civil War era / Tiya Miles

Series Titles:

The Steven and Janice Brose lectures in the Civil War era
Steven and Janice Brose lectures in the Civil War era.

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Ghosts--Southern States--History
African Americans--Southern States--History
Slavery--Southern States--History
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Molly and Matilda : Old Savannah specters -- Madame Lalaurie : French Quarter fiend -- Chloe and Cleo : Louisiana plantation phantoms.

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

"In this book Tiya Miles explores the popular yet troubling phenomenon of "ghost tours," frequently promoted and experienced at plantations, urban manor homes, and cemeteries throughout the South. As a staple of the tours, guides entertain paying customers by routinely relying on stories of enslaved black specters. But who are these ghosts? Examining popular sites and stories from these tours, Miles shows that haunted tales routinely appropriate and skew African American history to produce representations of slavery for commercial gain. "Dark tourism" often highlights the most sensationalist and macabre aspects of slavery, from salacious sexual ties between white masters and black women slaves to the physical abuse and torture of black bodies to the supposedly exotic nature of African spiritual practices. Because the realities of slavery are largely absent from these tours, Miles reveals how they continue to feed problematic "Old South" narratives and erase the hard truths of the Civil War era. In an incisive and engaging work, Miles uses these troubling cases to shine light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and how the ghosts of the past are still with us"--

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource

General Note:

"This book was published with the assistance of the Fred W. Morrison Fund for Southern Studies of the University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center for the Brose Lecture Series."

Local Note:

Available to current Emory University students, faculty and staff.

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9936676236202486

ISBN:

9781469626352
1469626357
9781469626345
1469626349

OCLC Number:

921988434