Dear reader,

As I was reading Chapter 6 of Ghostland, it gave me a mysterious vibe. Very spooky and gave me a little bit of a creepy feeling. The author’s writing was able to put me exactly into the setting it was taking place in. It put me in this dark setting, reminding me of a horror movie except I’m reading it. The time period of slavery made the whole story a lot spookier. If there was one word to describe the whole chapter, it’d be “eerie”.

“the ghosts of Shockoe Bottom are overwhelmingly white.”

One thing that caught my attention the most was the black ghosts. If this town in Virginia was one of the biggest slave trade auctions, then how come no black ghosts are to be found? If slaves were the ones being tortured, sold, imprisoned, by the white European settlers, where are they to be found?

“We typically think of ghost stories in terms of the remnants of a terrible tragedy, a past we cannot escape, or a justive unavenged.” (bottom of page 104)

If ghosts were to serve as a symbol of tragedy, a past we cannot escape. Then, how come are the majority of ghosts white settlers? What about the black ghosts of slaves? Have they just been forgotten? Erased from history? What is the purpose of the white ghosts’ presence, and what reminder is there to serve from the ghosts of these settlers?

This is called the Lost Colony of Roanoke. A mystery that still remains unsolved today. This island was settled by English colonists who later disappeared three years later. Chapter 6 of Ghostland reminds me of this story, due to its mysterious background and events that are unable to be solved or explained. The Island of Roanoke is said to be haunted by the ghosts of these lost colonists, and the cause behind the colonists’ disappearance is still unresolved to this day.