• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Site Directory
  • Home
  • Alex’s Lounge
  • P.O.U. Health and Fitness
  • POU Comments of the Week
  • P.O.U. Daily Link Sweep
Pragmatic Obots Unite

Pragmatic Obots Unite

Shooting down firebaggers & teabaggers one truth at a time...

Monday Open Thread: African-American Ghost Stories

October 29, 2012 by pragobots 129 Comments

GOOD MONDAY MORNING POU!

This week’s series will be devoted to African-American Ghost Stories.

 

“THE LEGEND OF BIG LIZ”

From Mongoose of Mystery:

There are several different versions of this story: sometimes it’s said to have happened during the Revolutionary War, but more often it’s the Civil War. In all versions, the tale is set in Dorchester county, near Bucktown. Bucktown is a centuries-old town between the Blackwater and Transquaking Rivers. These rivers are surrounded by immense tidal marshes – the nearest is known as Green Brier Swamp.

At the outset of the Civil War, there was a plantation owner on the outskirts of the Green Brier swamp who harbored passionate Confederate sympathies (as did probably every other plantation owner on the Eastern Shore). Although there is very little historical basis for this story, some versions name the planter “John Ruskin”….

The Eastern Shore was viewed as a threat to the Union from very early on in the war, since the farms there produced so much food, which could easily be sent south to support the Confederates. And that’s just what John Ruskin was doing. But what he wasn’t counting on was the cleverness of his slaves, who (like other well-known proactive individuals in the neighborhood*) had taken it upon themselves to assist the Union in any way possible.

One of the slaves, known as Big Liz, was extremely effective as a Union spy. Soon, all of Ruskin’s supply lines were being attacked, and the food and other sundries were handily intercepted by Yankees. Ruskin was deeply frustrated, but of course, he was not without resources. The Shore is a very small place when it comes to rumors and gossip, and soon he was able to determine that Big Liz was the cause of his problem.

Of course, as a slave holder, he was essentially permitted to kill or sell a slave at his discretion, but in the climate of hostility and unrest surrounding the war, he knew that selling the woman would be difficult, and attempting to kill her would be risky – she wasn’t called “Big Liz” for nothing, and perhaps he feared that his other slaves might rebel, or at least try to stop him. So he stewed in his fury for a little while.

At about this time, Jefferson Davis entrusted Ruskin with a substantial war chest. Ruskin needed to hide the chest, which was filled with Confederate gold. He hatched a diabolical plan: he called upon Liz to carry the chest out into the swamp, knowing she would cooperate so she could pass on the secret location to her Union contacts. Under cover of darkness, Ruskin and Liz made their way to a secret location in Green Brier Swamp, where Ruskin then told Liz to dig a hole.

As she finally lowered the chest into the prepared hole, Ruskin seized his chance and attacked her with a yard-long tobacco knife, completely severing her head from her body!

Ruskin buried her body with the chest, but could not locate her head. Briefly, he considered finding her head and burying it in the pit with her body, but it was too dark to go wandering in the dangerous marshland, and he knew that scavengers would make short work of the head when they found it.

As Ruskin walked toward home through the dark swamp, he became aware of a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, as if someone were watching him. Ruskin walked faster as clouds obscured the light of the moon. Panic gripped him, and he could hear the sound of footsteps on the path behind him. He broke and ran toward the lights of home, but to no avail.

The following day, he was found dead on the verge of the marsh, his neck broken, a look of horror frozen on his face.

Several of Ruskin’s Confederate associates later tried to locate the chest, but no one who has ever entered Green Brier Swamp in search of the treasure has ever come out again.

Legend has it that, to this day, Big Liz roams Green Brier swamp at night, glowing with blue fire, her head tucked under one arm. It is also said that you can summon Liz from the DeCoursey Bridge over the Transquaking River…if you dare.

 

 

Filed Under: African Americans, History, Open Thread Tagged With: African American Ghost Stories, Big Liz, Bucktown, Dorchester County, Green Brier Swamp, Maryland, Maryland Eastern Shore, Maryland Ghost Stories, U.S. Slavery

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

Powered by Disqus

Twitter

Tweets by @PragObots

Recent Posts

  • Monday Evening Thread: The 2025 BET Awards
  • Monday Open Thread: Stories from the Freedmen’s Bureau Records
  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – Mama Flora’s Family
  • Saturday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 6)
  • Friday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 5)

Tags

#HTGAWM #TGIT African American History African History Black History Civil Rights Movement Divas Forward Friday Open Thread Funk Grammy Winners Great Bands Hip-Hop How To Get Away With Murder Jazz Kerry Washington Legends Monday Open Thread Motown Records NFL Obama Biden 2012 Olivia Pope Open Thread P.O.U. Sunday Jazz Brunch POU Weekly NFL Picks President Barack H. Obama President Barack Obama President Obama R&B racism Rap Saturday Open Thread Scandal Shondaland Shonda Rhimes slavery Songwriters Soul Sports Sunday Open Thread Thursday Open Thread Tuesday Open Thread Video Viola Davis Wednesday Open Thread

Footer

A-F

  • African American Pundit
  • Afrospear
  • All About Race
  • Angry Black Lady Chronicles
  • AverageBro.com
  • Black Politics on the Web
  • Blacks 4 Barack
  • Blue Wave News
  • Brown Man Thinking Hard
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Democracy Now!
  • Democrats for Progress
  • Eclectablog
  • Extreme Liberal's Blog
  • FactCheck.org
  • Field Negro
  • FiveThirtyEight

G-S

  • GrannyStandingforTruth
  • Hello, Negro
  • Jack & Jill Politics
  • Latino Politico
  • Margaret and Helen
  • Melissa Harris Perry
  • Michelle Obama Watch
  • Mirror On America
  • Momma, here come that woman again!
  • New Black Woman
  • Obama Foodorama
  • Obama for America 2012
  • Positively Barack
  • Raving Black Lunatic
  • Sheryl Kaye's Blog
  • Sojourner's Place
  • Stuff White People Do

T-Z

  • Talking Points Memo
  • The Black Snob Feed
  • The Field
  • The Hill
  • The Mudflats
  • The Obama Diary
  • The only adult in the room
  • The Peoples View
  • The Reid Report
  • The Rude Pundit
  • The Starting Five
  • ThinkProgress
  • This Week in Blackness
  • Tim Wise
  • Uppity Negro Network
  • What About Our Daughters
  • White House Blog
  • Womanist Musings

Copyright © 2025 · Log in