When she was a girl the adjoining plantation was owned by her master's
brother-in-law, and on this plantation was the big old tobacco factory
where the tobacco raised on several neighboring plantations was priced
and hung. The negroes on her master's place said this factory was
"hanted." None of them would go near this factory after nightfall, for
"when the nights were still and the moon was full, you could hear the
ting, ting, ting, of the lever all night long and voices of the slaves
crying out and complaining, and you knew there wasn't anybody there at
all, jest hants."
Isabelle was a mid-wife by profession after the war, and tells this as
one of her experiences.
She was caring for a lady that had just had her second child; they lived
in a cottage with a full basement under it.
The father was to take full care of the other child, a little boy, at
night, and they were to sleep in the basement. The father and little son
tried to sleep in the basement for two or three nights, but the father
could not sleep. Something bothered him as if restless spirits were
abroad. One morning Isabelle said she was standing by the door when she
heard a voice, low and vibrant, saying, "No sleep here. Can't sleep
here." No one was there but her and the mother and the two little
children, so, of course, she knew it was "hants". This was proved to her
satisfaction a few months later. The skeleton of a man was found under
the basement floor.