The Myrtles Plantation

Plantations in the South are rich with history; some even date back to the 1600′s. The Myrtles Plantation Home has had a long history of different owners over the years; some will say that they are even still there after hundreds of years.

General David Bradford originally built the plantation house known as “The Myrtles” back in 1796. And after a dozen or so owners there have been many strange sightings reported. Today, The Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana is one of the most haunted houses in America.

When General Bradford passed away in 1808 his widow sold the plantation home and its slaves to Ruffian Sterling. Sterling started to build and add many rooms to the house nearly doubling its size. The lore states that Sterling’s oldest son was brutally stabbed to death one night in the home over gambling debts. Not long after that Sterling’s son-in-law was shot while he was sitting on the front porch. He was barely able to crawl into the house before he died in the arms of his wife.

By 1951, there had been several owners that had come and gone and Marjorie Munson was the current owner of the plantation. She was the first to start reporting some of the paranormal occurrences happening inside the house. One of these was the infamous mirror within her house, which she reported seeing numerous ghostly apparitions appear randomly in the mirror.

The Myrtles Plantation Haunting

The legend of the plantation says that Sterling was a very mischievous man; one of his slaves named Chloe was also his mistress. As long as she kept him pleased she wouldn’t have to work all day in the fields breaking her back. She would usually listen to him through the door of his study to make sure he wasn’t unhappy with her.



One day Sterling caught her peeping outside his door and ordered her ear to be cut off. After that she was known to have worn a green turban to hide the hideous scar that the knife caused. Sometime after that Sterling ordered her to make a cake for his daughter’s birthday; she decided to make the cake using crushed oleander.

Sterling was the only member of his family who didn’t eat any of the poisonous cake and was in turn the only survivor. The other slaves, afraid that they would be punished for what Chloe did, found her in her quarters and hung her from the tallest nearest tree. After she strangled to death, she was cut down and her lifeless body was weighed with rocks and then thrown into the river.

To this day there are many people who believe that Chloe is still “hanging around” on the plantation. Several reports describe people seeing ghosts roaming through the plantation that match the description of the previous deceased owners.

Other noted occurrences are the ghost of a woman who wanders from room to room in search of something or someone, a ghost playing the baby grand piano just one chord over and over, a young girl that appears before thunderstorms and even a portrait that changes expressions. However, the most common sighting is that of a woman wearing a green turban, hanging from a tree.