The Ghost in Jamaica’s Past
Many are familiar
with the most famous
Jamaican ghost story,
Annie Palmer the
White Witch of Rose
Hall. When Annie
Palmer nee Patterson
was ten, her family
moved to Haiti from
England. There, she
learned Voodoo from
her Haitian nanny who
brought her up after
her parents died.
Annie moved to
Jamaica, met, and
married her husband, but she had a yen for chocolate-hued
men and took a slave as a lover. When her husband found
out, he beat her with a riding crop and ended up dead
the following morning, under mysterious circumstances.
Thereafter, Annie is reputed to have taken slaves as
lovers, whom she tortured and murdered when she grew
tired of them.
This account of Annie Palmer’s life is the stuff of legend
and further romanticized in Herbert G. de Lisser’s novel
The White Witch of Rose Hall. However, the real Annie
Palmer, other than marrying multiple times lived a quiet
life. Still, the Rose Hall Great House where she lived, has
the reputation of being haunted, with accounts of a white
woman seen roaming the Rose Hall property on a black
horse. While there have been no recent sightings, another
tale of high drama took place in the 1800s at Lovers’ Leap
in the parish of St. Elizabeth. This love story is true.
J. L. Campbell
Point (Clarendon) and Treasure Beach (St. Elizabeth),
plus clouds, birds, and the occasional aircraft.
So, on to the love story. What happened was that
during the time of slavery, Richard Chardley—owner of
Yardley Chase Plantation—was in love with his house
keeper Mizzy, who was a slave. Mizzy, reputedly sweet
in looks and disposition, happened to be in love with
another slave from a neighboring plantation, Tunkey.
Chardley was also sweet on Mizzy, who wasn’t
having any of him. When he realized she was smitten
with Tunkey, Chardley planned to have him sold. The
two lovers got wind of the plan and ran away together.
Naturally, Chardley wasn’t taking it sitting down. I bet he
thought about missing out on some of that scrumptious
potato pudding Mizzy baked for him every week. That
delicacy is a special part of our Jamaican culture that I
managed to insert a slice in the Spice of Life. Ya see,
Anif lured Nyoka to his lair with the promise of potato
pudding, or as Jamaicans call it, Hell a Top, Hell a Bottom
and Alleluia in the Middle. To go back to Chardley, this
bad boy rounded up a group to bring back the fugitive
lovers.
Legend has it that Chardley and his gang chased Mizzy
and Tunkey to the edge of the cliff. Rather than being
captured and returned to a life of separation and slavery,
they hugged and leapt over the edge together. Today,
Lovers’ Leap is a tourist attraction and the local Port
Authority has since built a lighthouse on the site—the
highest one in the western hemisphere.
Still, Lovers’ Leap’s claim to fame from the 1800s is the
reason people visit today. Perhaps the spirit of Mizzy and
Tunkey still linger as it is said some locals have caught
shadowy figures lingering in the area—that of a young
Located on Jamaica’s south coast (at Lovers’ Leap) African couple wearing 18th century clothing. Today,
majestic mountains climb to an elevation of 1,700 feet and the couple is immortalized in an embrace, portrayed by
come to an abrupt end at a cliff that offers a vertical drop a wooden carving at Lovers’ Leap.
to the restless waves of Cutlass Bay. This scenic lookout
provides a panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea, Rocky
J.L. Campbell features Jamaican culture in her stories and writes contemporary romance,
romantic suspense, and women’s fiction with compelling characters. Visit her website at
www.joylcampbell.com or connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
10 | NKLC Magazine