Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures

Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures

From Pleasing Terrors by Mike Brown

December 14, 2025 · 54 min

About this episode

This episode explores the Annabel Lee legend and its connections to Charleston's history and culture.

In this episode, we follow the Annabel Lee legend backward: from modern ghost tours to nineteenth-century poetry, from pirate treasure maps to academic footnotes, from Sullivan's Island beaches to a forgotten corner of a graveyard. What emerges is not a simple ghost story, but an obsession—shared by scholars, storytellers, and an entire city convinced that something precious was buried in the South Carolina Lowcountry and must be found. Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle By C.G. Jung Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2 Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles The New York Evening Post The Charleston News and Courier The Sullivan's Island Edition of The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Durham and Elizabeth Verner Hamilton

Topics covered

  • ghost stories
  • literature
  • history
  • local culture
  • obsession

Keywords

  • Annabel Lee
  • ghost tours
  • nineteenth-century poetry
  • pirate treasure maps
  • Sullivan's Island
  • graveyard

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

Books & works: Charleston Gothic:, Vol. 22, Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond, The Final Mystery, The Sullivan's Island Edition, The Gold-Bug

Places: Sullivan's Island, the South Carolina Lowcountry, Charleston, South Carolina

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