Big Liz
A Maryland Ghost Story
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
The Master of the plantation was a firm supporter of the Confederate President and had committed to send as much food as he could to the Southern army. Things were going well at first, until the Yankees began attacking the Master's supply lines. The Master suspected a traitor among his slaves, and soon discovered that the Yankee spy was a slave-woman named Big Liz. She was a behemoth of a girl who could pick up two full-grown pigs, one under each arm, and cart them over to the slaughterhouse without assistance. If he confronted her directly and she fought back, she would take him to pieces.
So the Master came up with a different plan to rid himself of the spy. He approached the giant girl and asked her to assist him with a special task. He told her that President Jefferson Davis had entrusted him with a large chest full of gold. To keep it out of Yankee hands, he wanted to bury the chest where it would never be found. The girl's eyes gleamed when she heard this false report. The Master knew she was already planning to betray the existence of the chest to the Yankees.
The Master made Big Liz carry the heavy trunk several miles out into the swamp land and asked her to dig a deep hole for the trunk. He sat at his leisure while she worked and strained for hours against the muddy ground, which kept oozing back into the hole. When the slave girl was completely exhausted, the Master decreed the hole to be large enough for his war chest. Wearily, Big Liz dropped the shovel and pulled the heavy chest down until it lay at her feet. Then she started to climb out of the deep hole. But the Master barred her way, and Big Liz gazed up at him in sudden fear as he loomed over her. "Traitor! Yankee spy!" The Master hissed. "There is only one path open to a traitor."
The Master swung his sword at her, and the sharp edge of the blade cut cleaning through the slave girl's neck. Her head went rolling away into the tall grass as her body toppled across the chest. The Master heaped dirt over the chest and the body of slave girl who had betrayed him. Briefly, he considered finding her head and burying it in the pit with her body, but it was too dark to go wandering in the dangerous marshland, and he knew that scavengers would make short work of the head when they found it.
As the Master walked toward home through the dark swamp, he became aware of a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, as if someone were watching him. The Master walked faster as clouds obscured the light of the moon. The Master's teeth chattered as a breeze cut through him like the sharpened blade of the sword at his side, and his straining ears picked up the sound of footsteps on the path behind him.
The Master was filled with a terrible, superstitious dread of demons and witches and ghosts. He broke out into a panicked run, fleeing up the path as fast as his legs would carry him. To his relief, he saw the lights of his house rise before him, and knew he was home.
As he rounded the back corner of his house, he was confronted by a massive, dirt-encrusted figure that glowed with blue fire. The smell of rotting leaves and marsh grass filled his nostrils as his eyes raced up and up the tall creature, until they rested on the stump of its neck, where a head had resided only an hour before. Then he heard a chuckle from the creature's side, and he saw the phantom's head tucked under her arm.
The Master stumbled backward, gabbling desperately in fear as the ghost placed her head upon the ground with one hand and grabbed the collar of his shirt with the other. The murdered slave girl snapped the Master's neck in two and dropped his dead body to the ground beneath his bedroom window. Then Big Liz gathered up her severed head and vanished into the darkness.
They say that on the anniversary of her death, the ghost of Big Liz still may be seen roaming the swamp lands near her old home. Anyone foolish enough to walk near her grave will be driven away by the phantom, which to this day still defends the place where the Confederate chest is buried.
You can read more Maryland folktales and ghost stories in Spooky Maryland by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
I like that one it was awesome
Posted by: Aaron | August 23, 2010 11:55 AM
creepy
Posted by: ashleigh | August 23, 2010 07:27 PM
good story.somewhat scary
Posted by: Aditi | August 25, 2010 05:20 AM
i really liked this story!
Posted by: taylor | August 27, 2010 02:09 PM
wow that was cool and scary :p
Posted by: Lainey | August 28, 2010 01:16 PM
that was so not scary ...
Posted by: eesha | September 3, 2010 09:56 PM
I don't find that particually scary as she doesnt seem real. Please note i am easily scared.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 4, 2010 03:34 AM
not that scary
Posted by: jawuan | September 9, 2010 04:34 PM
not so scary
Posted by: miqdad | September 10, 2010 06:50 AM
so fake i cant belive this is scary its more creepy
Posted by: Carmen | September 12, 2010 03:37 PM
whoa that was sooooooooooooooooooooo not scary.
who am i foolin that was scary
Posted by: Anonymous | September 12, 2010 04:07 PM
that was pretty good.
Posted by: Tuenesha Cartwright | September 24, 2010 06:48 AM
it was scary
Posted by: Anonymous | September 24, 2010 01:17 PM
creepy, i'd rather not go to her swampy home at all that freaked me out!
Posted by: lalala | September 26, 2010 08:48 PM
That was a great story.
Posted by: Karen | October 2, 2010 10:36 PM
thought it was a good use
of description and eerily
satisfying.
Posted by: Elisa | October 7, 2010 02:46 PM
awsome
Posted by: davon lover | October 12, 2010 05:08 PM
soooooo coooolll i loved it!
Posted by: me | October 12, 2010 08:08 PM
cool, that was creepy not exactly scary but I enjoyed it.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 20, 2010 02:22 PM
wow... thats really cool but scary at the same time!!
Posted by: maranda | October 21, 2010 04:38 PM
That was so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Alanee | October 25, 2010 07:09 PM
That was a cool story. Not very scary thoug.h
Posted by: Anonymous | October 26, 2010 10:57 AM
Holy Flippen crap scary man
Posted by: Anonymous | October 28, 2010 05:30 PM
cool
Posted by: dieggo | October 29, 2010 08:54 AM
Wow, that was great!
Posted by: Z | October 29, 2010 07:04 PM
i dont get it
Posted by: ur mom | October 31, 2010 12:00 AM
I thought that was a pretty good story, but not very scary at all. At first you could predict what she was going to do. (I thought it was smart that she left him under his bedroom window. People might think he could have fallen out, and wouldn't suspect a ghost roaming around the village.)
Posted by: Alannah | October 31, 2010 10:50 AM
THT WAS TOTALLY DUMB BUT SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOLZ
Posted by: Anonymous | October 31, 2010 11:54 AM
This story wasnt bad, but the girl didnt seem real, so the story was not scary. Good job though!
Posted by: Katie | November 1, 2010 10:13 AM
That was kind of freaky. If I was told that at night, I would totally freak out!!
Posted by: Claire Marie | November 3, 2010 05:51 PM
wow that was amazzing i loved it it was a little scary ;)
Posted by: sara | November 17, 2010 09:20 PM
It wasn't scary but I thought that man deserved what he got!
Posted by: maliha | November 24, 2010 06:49 PM
finally a chick gets revenge!
Posted by: aimee | November 26, 2010 09:11 PM
It was awsome
Posted by: COOL | November 29, 2010 01:18 PM
i live in cambridge,md dorchester,md and trustt me its reall!!!:X
Posted by: Niya | December 18, 2010 09:58 PM
that was pretty scary i liked it
Posted by: Mikala | January 9, 2011 07:32 PM
Wow that story was just plain creepy but cool i loved it :)
Posted by: Someone | January 13, 2011 08:45 PM
It wasnt that scary cuz the girl didnt seem real.
Posted by: Erika | January 15, 2011 07:31 PM
nice story
Posted by: Anonymous | January 17, 2011 01:42 PM
that was creepy
i dont believe in that stuff but i dont ever want to go there in my life.
Posted by: jjjjjjj | January 26, 2011 02:05 PM
is was not scary
Posted by: Anonymous | February 1, 2011 06:21 PM
cool
Posted by: Kenzie | February 11, 2011 05:27 PM
I REMEMBER THIS STORY AS A YOUNG ADULT AND VISITED THE PROPERTY TOO, VERY CHILLING!
Posted by: DERESA | February 23, 2011 02:38 PM
This was really cool, but yet creapy.... But I want to read moooorrreeee!!!!!!
Posted by: anonymous | April 10, 2011 07:50 AM
that was awesome i wish i could know if that is real or not
Posted by: Haley | June 9, 2011 02:00 PM
he had it coming.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 3, 2011 02:05 PM
So nice! And I seem to see a very scary ghost in my room.
Posted by: Mickle Tommy | July 17, 2011 11:43 PM
Strange. Not scary.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 22, 2011 04:34 PM
awesome but i thought it was disgusting!!!!!
Posted by: margo | July 22, 2011 10:50 PM
It looks like to me the master thought he could handle her, he only had one miner set back, the loss of his life.
Posted by: Kirsten | July 28, 2011 12:39 AM
sosososososososososoo coooool but sooo fake lol
Posted by: Anonymous | July 29, 2011 06:05 PM
I learned to leave well enough alone, or at least come up with a well collected plan other than murder. This story also did not end up with good guys win either, but that is life to learn
Posted by: Kirsten | August 7, 2011 05:59 PM
is the best story i ever seen
Posted by: esteban escobar | August 8, 2011 11:04 AM
It gave me the chills very well written loved it :)
Posted by: Deiondre | October 2, 2012 12:49 PM
scary
Posted by: Anonymous | November 13, 2012 12:14 PM