Instead of trying to paraphrase the story of Annie Palmer I decided to share in its entirety a concise retelling of the tale..."The frightening tales about Annie Palmer are too numerous to mention and sometimes difficult to imagine.
Born Annie Mae Patterson, to an English mother and an Irish father it is said that her family moved to Haiti to practice witchcraft. Her parents died when she was 10 years old causing her nanny, who was a voodoo priestess, to adopt her and teach her the art of voodoo. Eight years later, her nanny died.
Annie came to Jamaica and met John Palmer, who owned the plantation at the time and they got married. After playing the role of wife for six years, she found out that she was partial owner to all his possessions so she poisoned him and became full owner of the estate.
From there, Annie used her power to her advantage, manipulating every man she admired and luring them into her demanding arms. Whether it was just for one night, or for whatever reason, Annie had countless affairs with slaves and English men.
Slaves were used for various reasons from tilling the soil on the plantation to "warming" Annie in her bedroom. After satisfying her in bed, Annie would show her gratitude by killing them so they could not reveal their affairs.
Slaves that were caught trying to run away from the plantation had their legs severed and they were thrown into pits inside the dungeon that were 16ft deep. There was no medical help offered so they would bleed to death amidst the cold darkness.
These pits are now packed with stones and converted into two washrooms and a gift shop standing between them.
Of all the slaves, Annie was most drawn to Takoo, the "Black Lover" as it is said that he practiced witchcraft. As a result of his skill, he gained freedom before all the other slaves.
Continuing her killing ways, Annie killed her second husband was about to find out about her affairs so she thought the only way to keep him from finding out was to kill him. She stabbed him repeatedly with a knife and poured hot oil in his ear to make sure he was dead.
The third husband was said to have had a drinking problem and he would hit her so one night she went into his room and strangled him.
The bodies of her husbands were then taken underground down to the waterfront where they were buried.
In those days, it wasn't customary for husbands to sleep with their wives so Annie and her husbands didn't share the same room. She killed her husbands in different rooms and blamed it on the common disease yellow fever. At that time, English men were dying like flies due to this sickness so it was easy for the deaths to be overlooked by the authorities.
Annie was accustomed to getting her own way or whatever she wanted. She was in an affair with the plantation's bookkeeper, Robert but he did not love her. His love was for Millicent who was a free native and Takoo's granddaughter.
Realizing that she could not get Robert's love, she decided to get Millicent out of the way so she cast a spell on her and she withered and died in nine days. This made Takoo upset and when the rebellion started on the plantation, he went up to Annie's room, made love to her and strangled her.
Takoo went missing and Ashman, Annie's overseer, found her powerless body when he went to her room to check on her. According to history, he killed Takoo within nine days of finding Annie's body..."
Taken from the article "The White Witch's Cruelty Still Haunts The Greathouse Of Rosehall" which originally appeared on the excellent Go-Local Jamaica website on February 17, 2004.
The eighth track in the Halloween mix is inspired by this famous tale and is called "Annie Palmer" by DJ Lone Ranger. This song appeared on his 1979 album "Barnabas In Collins Wood" which contained a fair amount of spooky content and had the scary cover to go with it. A couple more tracks from this album will also be making their appearance during this project - it is a wicked album! I only added some background effects and I think you'll enjoy it. Have a listen!
And while we're on the topic of Rosehall and ghost stories check out Junior Dub's Irie Reggae Music Page and his account of a ghost hunting expedition to Rosehall, complete with scarrry photos!
2 comments:
Ok ok I'm a sucker for comments, but I promise, I'm here everyday ! Cheers and muwuwuuhahahahaaaaaa
Rev, it's great to have you here! And a hearty muwuwuuhahahahaaaaaa back at 'cha!
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