(Spirit Box) “hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague” @ Blind Tiger 1/4/26 (Line 1)
- History, Haunts, & Hahas!
- Jan 11
- 12 min read
SPIRIT COMMUNICATION SESSION
Location: [Blind Tiger Pub]
Date: 1/4/2026
We attempted to engage with Helen in a session, then the phone white screened the app and deleted everything. We tried again. After 10-15 minutes, she did it a second time. Then, we implored Helen to give us a little bit of data we could keep, assuming she wanted to help us to know a bit more about her. We then successfully ran a quick two minute session we could export. I will be dissecting the info gradually, but here is the exported session.
RESPONSES RECEIVED:
R [6:15:50 PM]: here rope up demon far
R [6:15:39 PM]: fae someone two exorcism curse
R [6:15:30 PM]: daughter forget poisoned voodoo stop danger
R [6:15:10 PM]: stop pray sorry
R [6:15:07 PM]: waiting pray time body protect letter
R [6:14:54 PM]: look justice run voodoo dark family
R [6:14:44 PM]: werewolf basement family pirate key midnight
R [6:14:30 PM]: help reaper aura beware yes wicked
R [6:14:19 PM]: djinn ectoplasm pirate touch son wife
R [6:14:10 PM]: celtic child look show death many
R [6:13:57 PM]: first burned forget soon father first
R [6:13:46 PM]: none son pain am dawn residual
R [6:13:37 PM]: hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague
R [6:13:37 PM]: hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague
(Scroll all the way to the bottom to jump right to my interpretation of the researched message we were meant to gather - hint - it’s probably not Helen who left this particular note for us)
Just some thoughts right off the bat (pertaining to “Helen” specifically)
“Hopeful Moment”
I implored Helen to let us collect and keep just a little data.
“Hopeful [for a] moment” comes to mind as responsive to my plea.
“Afraid slavery”
Regarding her profession, we’ve found in past ghost hunting back & forth sessions that she has no issues affirming she was a prostitute. In historical context, it is the oldest profession in the world. Further, at least here in the “old south,” women weren’t exactly being handed money or property. Women were trained to cook, clean, and sew. However, these were considered wife skills rather than hirable skills. This means that if a woman wasn’t handed the exact right hand of cards, inheriting or marrying into financial assets, the revenue options were certainly limited. Potentially, perspective may certainly favor a forcible profession where compromising values are necessary for survival.
“Hurt Plague”
Perhaps, she (or a loved one she assumed financial responsibly for) had an injury or illness that required expensive treatment, potentially another layer of financial need.
Alternatively, or maybe additionally, this could be in reference to injuries resulting from her “fall” or may be an involved factor that possibly played a part in why she “fell” in the first place (preexisting conditions)
Removing the focus on Helen, it is worth mentioning the street and general address area was involved heavily in auctioning humans who were enslaved. I had always assumed whatever spirit contact I might get on site would be with Helen, but my memory of the location's dark history failed me, and upon further research into the specifics of the property address 36-38 Broad Street, I realized that half of the building was likely DIRECTLY affiliated with human trafficking history in Charleston. Therefore, potential interactions with entities aren't exclusive to Helen.
The following images are archivally created timelines pertinent to the individual addresses, the combined address, and the location itself. These timelines were made through the app I created, Far From Fiction, which can be accessed in the apps section of my website.
As a starting point, I searched in Google AI for "hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague Charleston," and the search results took an abrupt turn to the history I had temporarily neglected at the site of where the Blind Tiger Pub now resides. This was the summary:
The phrase "hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague charleston" appears to be a string of words reflecting the complex history of Charleston, South Carolina, where the brutal reality of slavery, associated fears and suffering, and modern moments of hope for reconciliation all intersect. The words evoke themes prevalent in the city's historical narrative and ongoing dialogue about its past.
Key themes related to the words include:
Slavery Hurt: Charleston was the largest slave port in the U.S., with nearly half its population enslaved before the Civil War. This institution involved physical confinement, brutal treatment, sexual exploitation, and the tearing apart of families, causing immense and lasting pain and trauma.
Afraid: White Charlestonians lived in a state of fear and paranoia over potential slave insurrections, which led to even more cruel control and subordination. Events like the alleged Denmark Vesey conspiracy in 1822 heightened these fears.
Plague: The "vestiges of slavery still plague us today," as described by a city councilman in 2018. The legacy of racial oppression, including systemic inequalities in wealth and opportunity, continues to affect the city and nation.
Hopeful Moment: The city has experienced moments of hope and reconciliation, such as the Charleston City Council's formal apology for its role in the slave trade in 2018, passed on Juneteenth. The establishment of the International African American Museum also represents an effort to acknowledge and tell the full truth of this history. In the aftermath of the 2015 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church, the city also came together in unity and peace, which many saw as a hopeful response to tragedy.
These words collectively point to the city's ongoing struggle to confront its difficult past, acknowledge the pain it caused, and move toward a more hopeful and equitable future.
Before diving into specific research projects with independent source references, I also took a glance at the generated timelines from the historic site search with my Ethereal Echoes app. Once again, I searched each address, the combined address, and the name of the establishment. (I apologize for the graininess of the larger screenshots. I forgot to add an export function to this app and used screenshots and the old-school paint program to get the images here. I will add exportability in my next app update when my web app credits renew towards the end of the month .)
Though not as straight-forward, clean-cut, and verbatim as Old Exchange Spirit Box Line 1 or Line 2, I searched "hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague Charleston". I found very limited resources, but the reliable resource that contained most of the words verbatm and two words as more or less synonyms, is the following:
"Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876"
This source isn’t a one-to-two-man show like the research response from “Old Exchange 1/1/26 Session Line 1,” it was an enormous collection of information - Like the book from Old Exchange 1/1/26 Session Line 2's research, this source is quite extensive. The highlight function is also not available for this document, so I decided the research would have a pin in it intermittedly.
I began to read the 80 page article, as a onceover for now, a light scanning. I went over the headlines, emboldened text, images and captions, and watched the videos . I found the webpage wouldn't save as a pdf, and going through 80 pages was not possible in the same fashion I had in “Old Exchange 1/1/26 Line 2.” I reevaluated my documentation and opted for any paragraph, quotation, or image pertaining to South Carolina - since it was probably a South Carolina spirit who dropped that crumb trail. With that, here are my notes. The following nine pages of content that includes South Carolina is direct text from the article verbatim, and I claim no rights it.
Based on my extract from the article, the spirit box message intended for us to hear from "hopeful moment afraid slavery hurt plague" brings the following major events to our awareness:
1861 - First shots of Civil War fired on Fort Sumter by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. South Carolina seceds from Union
1863- The Emanicipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation brought no freedom from enslavement to South Carolina right away.
1865- The Civil War, but this was still not the end of slavery in South Carolina.
During the reconstruction era of 1865-1876, brutality against african americans was still at large, usually with no justice or repercussions for the perpetrators.
"In 1874, Robert Smalls was elected to Congress from Beaufort County, South Carolina. Twelve years earlier, while working as an enslaved crewman aboard the Planter, a Confederate ammunition transport ship, Mr. Smalls piloted the ship out of Charleston harbor and delivered it to the Union Navy. Recognized for his bravery and skill, he became one of the first African American pilots in the United States Navy."
"Almost half of elected Black officeholders served in South Carolina and Louisiana, where Black people had the longest history of political organization."
The Ku Klux Klan committed 197 murders and 548 aggravated assaults in just the Carolinas.
Almost all white male southerners were members of the KKK.
(Scroll all the way to the bottom if you’d rather jump right to my interpretation of the researched message we were meant to gather - hint - it’s TOTALLY not Helen who left these breadcrumbs on the Spirit Box.)
Beginning in 1861, 11 Southern states determined to maintain enslavement seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America.
In South Carolina, the first state to secede, legislators declared that “[a]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery” was a primary catalyst for their action.14 As Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee followed, the Confederacy developed a platform of “states’ rights” and “home rule” that aimed to preserve white supremacy and enslavement.
On March 10, 1865, Confederate soldiers in Darlington, South Carolina, hanged a young Black woman named Amy Spain from a sycamore tree on the courthouse lawn. Accused of “treason and conduct unbecoming a slave” for aiding Union forces who had briefly occupied the town, Ms. Spain was killed just weeks before the end of the Civil War.16
On its face, the order declared the freedom of only those enslaved people held in states in rebellion against the United States, namely South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The proclamation exempted Tennessee, as well as Union-occupied portions of Virginia and Louisiana, and left slavery wholly intact in the border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri.28
George King, a Black man in Oklahoma, recalled in 1937 how freedom was explained to him when he was emancipated in South Carolina decades earlier: “The Master he says we are all free,” Mr. King said, “but it don’t mean we is white. And it don’t mean we is equal.”37
On the night of March 6, 1871, a mob of armed white men hanged a Black man named James Williams in York County, South Carolina, and terrorized the local African American community, assaulting residents and burning homes.67 Mr. Williams, enslaved before the Civil War, had recently organized a coalition to protect the freedom of Black people in York County.68 White residents circulated rumors claiming that he posed a threat,69 and as his former enslaver later testified, his presence “caused a great deal of uneasiness.”70 Details of the lynching were sparsely documented but federal officials arrested and prosecuted several alleged members of the mob. One testified during trial that, after hanging Mr. Williams, the mob stopped to get “some crackers and whiskey.”71 Despite the admission, all charges were later dismissed or discontinued and no one was ever held accountable for Mr. Williams’s death.72
York County, South Carolina In 1871, federal investigators found evidence of 11 murders and more than 600 whippings and other assaults in York County, South Carolina, where nearly the entire white male population had joined the Klan.73 When local grand juries failed to take action, federal authorities urged President Ulysses S. Grant to intervene, describing the state as “under the domination of systematic and organized depravity” that created a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the history of any civilized community.”74 More than 60 years later, W.E.B. Du Bois described Klan violence as “armed guerilla warfare” and estimated that, between 1866 and mid-1867, the Klan committed 197 murders and 548 aggravated assaults in North and South Carolina alone.75
In 1874, Robert Smalls was elected to Congress from Beaufort County, South Carolina. Twelve years earlier, while working as an enslaved crewman aboard the Planter, a Confederate ammunition transport ship, Mr. Smalls piloted the ship out of Charleston harbor and delivered it to the Union Navy. Recognized for his bravery and skill, he became one of the first African American pilots in the United States Navy. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Smalls fought tirelessly against racial segregation in the military, railroads, and restaurants.88
During Reconstruction, an estimated 2,000 Black men served in elected office from local and state positions all the way up to Congress.89 Almost half of elected Black officeholders served in South Carolina and Louisiana, where Black people had the longest history of political organization. In most other states, African Americans were under-represented compared to their population. Some Black leaders had gained their freedom before the Civil War, while others had worked as skilled artisans during enslavement or served in the Union Army. A large number of Black political leaders came from the church, having worked as ministers during enslavement and in the early years of Reconstruction.
Union County, South Carolina, 1871 - White mobs lynch up to 12 Black men during rampant Klan terrorism.
Hamburg, South Carolina, July 1876 - In violence leading up to election day, a white mob attacks Black men stationed at the National Guard Armory, killing at least six.
South Carolina - In 1860, South Carolina was one of only two states in the nation with more enslaved residents than free. It was also the first state to secede from the Union in 1861 and like much of the South, ended the war “grimly determined that freedom would not substantially alter the condition of the former slaves.”177 Racial violence by the Klan and other white mobs grew so widespread and deadly during Reconstruction that it attracted federal investigation, led to passage of the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, and caused President Grant to declare martial law later that year.178 In Abbeville County alone, Freedmen’s Bureau records document 77 acts of racial violence against Black people within seven months in 1868—that amounts to a whipping, rape, shooting, or lynching once every three days.
Abbeville, South Carolina - In Abbeville, South Carolina, white mobs injured many African Americans in attacks before the 1868 election and declared that anyone who voted for the civil rights ticket would be killed.192
On the morning of the election, several African American men were shot and some were killed, simply for being on the streets on election day. Despite these dangers, 31-year-old Mr. Catto was determined to exercise his vote. A Northern man with Southern roots, Mr. Catto’s family had moved North from South Carolina after his father’s emancipation from slavery, and he had grown into an active advocate for equal rights. In 1863, he helped to organize Black infantry units and aggressively lobbied for their inclusion in the Union military effort. Three years later, he staged a one-man protest against Philadelphia’s segregated street cars.
Saxe Joiner was lynched in Unionville, South Carolina, in March 1865—just weeks before the end of the Civil War.
Despite the Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Joiner—a literate and skilled Black carpenter—was still enslaved by a white “master.” The master found a note Mr. Joiner had written to a white girl staying in the home offering her “protection from the Yankees,” and interpreted it as a sexual advance. The white man had Mr. Joiner arrested. Soon after, local white men abducted Mr. Joiner from jail and hanged him from a tree.234
Though it is difficult to accurately quantify the total number of Black people killed in these mass attacks during Reconstruction, the era is full of documented massacres with staggering death tolls in communities including Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1866; Opelousas, Louisiana, and Millican, Texas, in 1868; Union County, South Carolina, in 1871; Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873; and Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1874. These attacks reflected the ease with which white resentment erupted into death and destruction for Black communities and the relative impunity with which that violence spread. The frequency of mass murders ensured that no Black person could escape the constant threat of terror.
The Equal Justice Initiative has documented at least 12 large scale massacres in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina between 1872 and 1876, many of which targeted politically active African Americans.
Federal protection disappeared almost immediately after the Cruikshank decision. The Justice Department dropped 179 Enforcement Act prosecutions in Mississippi alone.337 Black people had few federal troops to turn to for protection, as the government had already withdrawn troops from all Southern states except Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Violence grew more frequent and bolder—white mobs committed attacks on African Americans undisguised and in broad daylight.338 Black people dreaded the withdrawal of the few remaining federal troops.
It is my presumption, based on the spirit box data stating "hopeful moment afraid slavery plague"
at one of the major sites of human trafficking
at part of the original South Carolina bank on the 38 side of the address
in an 1800 & 1804 building
is more or less
that enslaved people and freedmen alike remained hopeful for a positive change, though the moments meant to eradict it were fruitless for quite some time
that slavery continued to plague the existence of african americans long after it was abolished
that brutally violent hate crimes and executions continued here in South Carolina even years after the war ended
that fear was something that ruled the south
that through all of this suffering, these people still prevailed as hopeful for a better tomorrow
(My computer died at exactly midnight after typing “a better tomorrow.” I love a good synchronicity.)
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