GHOSTS AND GRAVEYARDS: COLONIAL PARK CEMETERY AND MEMORY CONSTRUCTION ON GHOST TOURS IN SAVANNAH, GEORGIA A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Brenna Elizabeth Weston In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major Department: Sociology and Anthropology July 2016 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title GHOSTS AND GRAVEYARDS: COLONIAL PARK CEMETERY AND MEMORY CONSTRUCTION ON GHOST TOURS IN SAVANNAH, GEORGIA By Brenna Elizabeth Weston The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Kristen Fellows Chair John Creese Angela Smith Approved: 07/29/2016 Jeffrey Bumgarner Date Department Chair ABSTRACT This thesis examines memory construction and landscape interaction on ghost tours at Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. The research in this thesis centers on the ways in which ghost tours in the area interact with the cemetery’s landscape and how oral narratives compare with written sources through the lenses of authority and authenticity. Ghost tour narratives are included in a larger argument for their usefulness and importance to archaeologists, especially for introducing dialogues with local communities about site interpretation and preservation. This may also be useful for archaeologists researching intersections of landscape interactions and modern interpretations. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my utmost gratitude to a number of people who have helped me in many ways throughout this process. You have all been there to share my happiness, frustration, little bit of desperation, and success on this journey. Specifically, I would like to thank my parents, John and Charlene, for your encouragement and support throughout my life, especially for your attempts to de-stress me through the use of wine and sugary foods (which worked like a charm). A special thanks to you, mom, for flying to North Dakota just to watch the cat while I went to Savannah for research. Thank you both. I don’t think I would have decided to go back to school if it wasn’t for your love and encouragement and I definitely don’t think I would have finished if it wasn’t for the “get it done” attitude and drive to finish that I learned from both of you. I love you. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Andy. I don’t think I would have been able to finish this without you. Thank you for coming to Savannah with me, sitting in a stuffy archive for hours on end, and walking around in 100 degree weather, patiently waiting while I took pictures and walked all over the place. Thank you for calming me down when I thought I couldn’t write any more. Thank you for comforting me when I became frustrated. Thank you for helping me figure out how to put my jumbled up thoughts into words. And thank you for reading and rereading my chapters and editing them with a journalist’s eye. I am incredibly lucky to have met and married you and I am so grateful for all of your love and support. I love you. Always. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL CONTEXT ............................................................................... 7 CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................... 18 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY ................................. 44 CHAPTER FIVE: ANXIETY AND 1820 .................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER SIX: THE REMEMBERED AND FORGOTTEN AT CPC ..................................... 82 CHAPTER SEVEN: LEGACIES OF THE CIVIL WAR .......................................................... 102 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION AND AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH .................. 114 REFERENCES CITED ............................................................................................................... 122 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ............................................................................. 129 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Number of Deaths from Yellow Fever in 1820, Written Sources ............................................ 58 2. Count of Persons Buried in CPC from Ghost Tours ................................................................. 83 3. Count of Persons Buried in CPC from Written Sources ........................................................... 85 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Current map of Savannah’s historic district, 2016. ................................................................... 10 2. Plan for the establishment of the Negro Burying Ground adjacent to CPC, labeled here as “Church Cemetery.” ............................................................................................................. 12 3. Plaque commemorating yellow fever victims from 1820. ........................................................ 61 4. Plan of Bethesda Orphanage grounds. ...................................................................................... 96 5. Broken and misplaced grave markers (also known as the orphan tombstones) placed along the eastern wall of CPC. ............................................................................................... 104 6. Brick sidewalk along the western side of CPC. ...................................................................... 107 vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Overview Established in 1733, the city of Savannah, Georgia has a long history in the southern United States. In today’s Savannah, a number of tour companies cater to the varied interests of tourists who visit the area. The historic district is an especially popular stop for tourists seeking details about the city’s spectral history. On any given night, especially in the summer, there are a number of ghost tours operating within the city’s two-square mile historic district. This thesis arose from an interest in the ways in which ghost tour operators and their participants understand and contribute to their locale’s heritage. Savannah’s historic district was selected as a research location due to its substantial ghost tourism industry. While engaged in participant observation on different ghost tours, one location stood out as a consistent spot of interpretation: Colonial Park Cemetery. The cemetery, rather than the historic district as a whole, then became the primary focus of research for this thesis with the goal of analyzing memory making and the use of the landscape on the ghost tours and in written sources. Specifically, the questions pertaining to this thesis center on: how memory is constructed and reconstructed on ghost tours at Colonial Park Cemetery and how the cemetery’s landscape is socially constructed in both the written record and on the ghost tours. Colonial Park Cemetery (CPC) had a relatively short period of use but a long history within the city of Savannah 1. CPC is now almost directly in the middle of Savannah’s historic district, which makes it a popular spot for tourists and locals alike. Its association with a variety of ghost tours in the city made it a useful case study for this thesis. 1 Colonial Park Cemetery went by many names in its 266 years of existence however, for clarity and consistency throughout this thesis, Colonial Park Cemetery will be used when referencing the cemetery, unless an alternate name is used in a direct quotation. 1 The research data comes from participant observation on a number of the city’s ghost tours, open-ended interviews with ghost tour operators, tourists on the tours, locals, and city officials, and visits to the Georgia State Historical Society (GSHS) to examine written records. The GSHS houses many of the written sources utilized in the analysis, specifically archival data including archaeological excavation files, city council meeting minutes, and religious documents. CPC was also examined outside of the tour events and the landscape within and outside of the boundaries was photographed and captioned in iPhoto at a later date. Ghost tours play a direct role in the creation and recreation of memories at CPC. Existing features (as well as absent ones) on the landscape influence the stories that are included on the tours. They are analyzed based on the ways in which the tour guides influence memory construction and reconstruction of events associated with CPC. The narratives are also examined through their associations with the landscape in and around CPC, particularly focusing on the ways in which the tour guides include and exclude certain markers on the landscape to influence memory making. Finally, the narratives are explored through their negotiations of history and modernity with regards to who/what is remembered on the tours and who/what