The Ghosts Of Cotton Row

Well-known Memphis detective Lou Cros heads up the investigation team to find a serial killer, nicknamed the Mangler, whose victims are homeless men. In a bizarre coincidence, the victims are linked to the Union Avenue Mission and the historic districts of Beale Street and Cotton Row. As part of his investigation, he searches for a homeless man who might be the only living person with information that could lead to the Manglers identity. Under intense pressure from the mayor to find the serial killer and solve the crime, Lou finds himself getting too close to some of denizens of the darker side of the street culture in MemphisGlitter, Big John Fagan, Boots, J, Bones, and a mysterious newcomer known only as Rocky. Pushed to his breaking point, Lou forces himself to search the abandoned Cotton Row District, where ghostly premonitions threaten not only his life but that of his partner, Sue Nash, as well.

Rose, a friend for a very short time, had died as a result of cancer. No mystery there, but shortly afterwards Rose's only son, just 12 years old is killed in a terrible auto accident. Even before his death, there was talk of a 'spirit or ghost' appearing in Rose's house. Maree had failed in her efforts to contact this 'ghost' because family members were in denial. She put the file away and tried to forget it. After a call from another friend, she decided it was time to investigate again. Maree Price is not your regular physic in the general sense. Maree goes about her mystery solving much like 'Miss Marple' solves cases in Agatha Christie novels. She likes to remain in the background and contact these 'spirits' in her own unique way. She says then they 'just come to her and solve the mystery', she is only the human vessel. A wonderful paranormal mystery with character.

Ghosts and Goosebumps is a rich collection of folktales and superstitions that capture the oral traditions of central and southeastern Alabama. In its pages one can glimpse the long-lost horse-and-buggy times, when people sat up all night with the dead and dying, hoed and handpicked cotton, drew water from wells, and met the devil rather regularly. The book is divided into three parts--tales, superstitions, and slave narratives. The spirits of treasure-keepers, poltergeists, murderers and the murdered, wicked men and good-men-and-true float through the book's first section. Sue Peacock, for example, recalls seeing the ghost of her brother, and E.C. Nevin describes a mysterious light in a swamp. In other tales, reports of supernatural experiences are proved to be rationally explicable--Lee Wilson's devil in the cemetery turns out to be a cow and chains rattling near New Tabernacle Church in Coffee County belong not to specters but to hogs. The superstitions are arranged according to subject and include such topics as love and marriage, weather and the seasons, wish making, bad luck, signs, and portents. Anonymous tellers confide that it is bad luck to carry ashes out after dark, to let a locust holler in your hand, to rock an empty rocking chair, to let your fishing pole cross someone else's, or to have a two-dollar bill (unless one corner has been removed). The slave narratives, selected from the Works Progress Administration Folklore Collection, are substantial and yield a fascinating view of nineteenth century African-American folk life, replete with sillies and lazy men, preachers and witches, brave little boys, and reluctant bridegrooms. Although the times and places have changed, the spirit of the folk is unaltered. Taken together, these folktales are marvelously diverse--by turns fearsome, fantastical, witty, ribald, charmingly innocent--showing people from all backgrounds, their endless vices and occasional virtues, their hopes, fears, and loves.

Winner of the 1999 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction A CBC Notable Children’s Book in the Field of Social Studies Two recently freed, formerly enslaved brothers work to protect the new life they’ve built during the Reconstruction after the Civil War in this vibrant, illustrated middle grade novel. Maybe nobody gave freedom, and nobody could take it away like they could take away a family farm. Maybe freedom was something you claimed for yourself. Like other ex-slaves, Pascal and his older brother Gideon have been promised forty acres and maybe a mule. With the found family they have built along the way, they claim a place of their own. Green Gloryland is the most wonderful place on earth, their own farm with a healthy cotton crop and plenty to eat. But the notorious night riders have plans to take it away, threatening to tear the beautiful freedom that the two boys are enjoying for the first time in their young lives.

This is the first anthology of the author’s own favorite ghost stories from the highly successful Jeffrey series of books that began in 1969 with “13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.” Hundreds of thousands of these books have been sold. The present volume includes 13 of the best of Mrs. Windham’s stories, representing mysterious and supernatural doings from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Most of the stories are related to historical places and sometimes to historical people.

The Ghost Patrol got its name after being reported that all members were killed in the battle of Gettysburg. The Special Forces unit had gotten well-known for its successful raids on Yankee supply lines, either destroying them or carrying war materials to rebel camps. Now they were asked to attack supply trains and even to steal the whole train and bring it to the rebels who were in desperate need of all war supplies. Captain Sam, as his men liked to call him, was an excellent soldier. He handpicked his men and gave them special training. They were well-disciplined to fight hard and win. They could hit their targets hundreds of yards away with their long-range rifles. Captain Samuel Clifton was a plantation owner and a family man, who loved his beautiful wife and children. They loved to have parties where they were known for serving good food and having great entertainment.

What was it like working in the fields? Well, it’s laborious work and sometimes dangerous, encountering rattlesnakes. Every year the family had to go out in the road to many towns to pick cotton. This was for six to seven months of the year to make enough money to support our family and to survive. Without the cotton fields, there was no way to make it. Working in the cold weather and summer months were the worst. I was one of twelve in my family. Our predicament was not a matter of choice, but a matter of being born. Back in the day, the cotton fields became our only salvation and provided opportunities for a better life. We traveled the road of hope; the road of struggles; the road of injustice, hate, and discrimination—the roads we traveled to make enough money just to pay our bills and eat. For over twenty years, those roads were traveled in the forties, fifties, and sixties. Working in the cotton fields was hope—a stepping stone to a better future, which was our hope.