Tales from the Haunted South, Tiya Miles
Tales from the Haunted South, Tiya Miles
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Tales from the Haunted South
Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era

Author: Tiya Miles

Narrator: Julienne Irons

Unabridged: 5 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/07/2025

Synopsis

In this book Tiya Miles explores the popular yet troubling phenomenon of "ghost tours," frequently promoted and experienced at plantations, urban manor homes, and cemeteries throughout the South. As a staple of the tours, guides entertain paying customers by routinely relying on stories of enslaved black specters. But who are these ghosts? Examining popular sites and stories from these tours, Miles shows that haunted tales routinely appropriate and skew African American history to produce representations of slavery for commercial gain. "Dark tourism" often highlights the most sensationalist and macabre aspects of slavery, from salacious sexual ties between white masters and black women slaves to the physical abuse and torture of black bodies to the supposedly exotic nature of African spiritual practices. Because the realities of slavery are largely absent from these tours, Miles reveals how they continue to feed problematic "Old South" narratives and erase the hard truths of the Civil War era. In an incisive and engaging work, Miles uses these troubling cases to shine light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and how the ghosts of the past are still with us.

About Tiya Miles

Tiya Miles is the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University, the author of five prize-winning works on the history of slavery and early American race relations, and a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship recipient. She was the founder and director of the Michigan-based ECO Girls program, and she is the author of the National Book Award-winning, New York Times bestselling All That She Carried. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on May 19, 2021

full post can be found here: [URL not allowed] "... let our ghosts be real, let our ghosts be true, let our ghosts carry on the integrity of our ancestors." I loved this book. I seriously do not remember why I bought it in the first place, but some time ago I chose it from my hi......more

Goodreads review by Ana-Maria on January 08, 2023

I do engage in quite a bit of dark tourism, mostly historical sites, museums, places that have a role and aim. I am very uncomfortable with true crime tourism or paranormal tourism that relies on real events and would not participate in any of it. It's very easy to go from educational to disrespectf......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on June 21, 2020

I bought this book on a whim and I'm so glad that I did. It's clearly an academic text, but Miles' writing style and the content of ghost tours make this book super engaging. It feels a little like a travelogue, as Miles spends time in Savannah, New Orleans, and the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana,......more

Goodreads review by ジェシカ on May 11, 2023

I think this work is great for folks who want to consider the socio-political impacts of ghost tours, especially when they often rely on harmful, violent stereotypes of people of color to make money. Helped me understand why I would even like ghost tours and cemeteries despite their intent and I may......more

Goodreads review by Kate on February 19, 2021

I have a lot of thoughts about this book, and about southern horror tourism being a convenient (and safe) way for white people to encounter histories of enslavement. This book is full of many, many excellent words. These are a few of my favorites: "The South, therefore, functions like a storehouse fo......more

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