The Legend of Rose Hall

Sugar was king in the 1800s, bringing immense wealth to the owners of Jamaica's sugar cane plantations. There were 700 plantation great houses, all built on high ground to oversee the thousands of slaves who worked in the fields below. During the slave rebellion of 1831, 685 of the great houses were burned to the ground as hated symbols of the extravagant life styles founded on cruelty. Yet, one of the fifteen great houses which still remained was The Rose Hall Great House, a 6,000 acre and 3,000 slave plantation. Rose Hall is a visually impressive Georgian Mansion and the most famous great house in Jamaica. Rich woodwork graces the interiors furnished with European antiques. It sits high on the hillside, with a panorama view over the coast in Montego Bay. John Palmer, the representative of King George III to the Jamaican Parish of St. James, built it between 1770 and 1780. Rose Hall, however, is not only noteworthy for its beauty. It is also famous as the setting for a chilling Jamaican legend about the White Witch of Rose Hall filled with underground passageways, dungeons, bloodspill, and hauntings.