Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine BH Magazine Final | Page 10

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