South Carolina legends, mysteries, and tales drawn from interviews and folklore.

22 tales from the South Carolina low country.

"The first volume of the Story of the South Carolina Lowcountry is a story pure and simple with facts, beginning with the founding of the Lowcountry and describing its subsequent growth and development." The second and third volumes include biographical sketches and portraits of the citizens who "have been significant factors in their State."

Welcome to South Carolina's Lowcountry, the so-called “Netherlands of the South," where good tales grow like sweet-grass and the truth is as tricky as the Devil himself. Author Brian McCreight recounts thirteen tall tales told to him by his friend Jim Aisle, the Lowcountry Liar, whose homespun Southern yarns weave fact and fiction like the Gullah women make sweet-grass baskets. These tales are for telling aloud; the funny and the fantastic betide true Southern characters in a style as smooth as morning on the Stono River. Hear from Jim the stories of Brave Bob and his encounter with the ne'er-do-wells at the old mansion; of Lazy Lowcountry Jack and his troubles earning his keep and following his mama's orders; and learn about the Native American boy way back when whose hungry fishing trip wound up supplying food for all the coastal peoples. Jim even tells his own story: a firsthand account of a foggy morning on Buzzard's Roost Point, an area strictly off-limits to all but the conjure men and root doctors who work their magic there.

"From horse thieves to hurricanes, from shattered Southern myths to fractured family ties, from Nashville to Myrtle Beach to Miami, Low Country is a lyrical, devastating, fiercely original memoir" of one family's changing fortunes in the Low Country of South Carolina (Justin Taylor, author of Riding with the Ghost). J. Nicole Jones is the only daughter of a prominent South Carolina family, a family that grew rich building the hotels and seafood restaurants that draw tourists to Myrtle Beach. But at home, she is surrounded by violence and capriciousness: a grandfather who beats his wife, a barman father who dreams of being a country music star. At one time, Jones's parents can barely afford groceries; at another, her volatile grandfather presents her with a fur coat. After a girlhood of extreme wealth and deep debt, of ghosts and folklore, of cruel men and unwanted spectacle, Jones finds herself face to face with an explosive possibility concerning her long-abused grandmother that she can neither speak nor shake. And through the lens of her own family's catastrophes and triumphs, Jones pays homage to the landscapes and legends of her childhood home, a region haunted by its history: Eliza Pinckney cultivates indigo, Blackbeard ransacks the coast, and the Gray Man paces the beach, warning of Hurricane Hazel.

When African slaves were brought to the American South to work the plantations, they brought with them their culture, traditions, and religion—including what came to be called voodoo. This unique blend of Christianity, herbalism, and folk magic is still practiced in South Carolina's Lowcountry. Though a beginners guide, Lowcountry Voodoo offers a surprising wealth of information about this fascinating part of Lowcountry life. Learn about: the Gullah and their ways how to bring good luck and avoid bad luck spells and curses and how to avoid them how to cook up traditional good-luck meals for New Years Day a real voodoo village you can visit sweetgrass baskets events and tours to acquaint you with Lowcountry culture. In a selection of Lowcountry tales that feature voodoo, meet: a boo hag bride who sheds her skin at night Dr. Buzzard, the most famous root doctor a giant ghost dog a young man whose love potion worked too well George Powell, who outwitted a haint Crook-Neck Dick, who (mostly) outwitted a hangman Doctor Trott, who captured a mermaid.