Canada's Haunted Coast by Vernon Oickle
(Book Three of Haunted Maritimes)
This is an interesting look at some ghost folklore from the Maritimes. The book includes a tale about Oak Island and more about Kidd's possible other treasure locations. It was a nice little read.
Hauntings of the Hudson River Valley by Vincent T. Dacquino
I honesty do not know if I would have been aware of the issues I was aware if I hadn't read [book:Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era|27466786], which anyone interested in ghost folklore or true (or possibly true) ghost stories. should read.
Dacquino looks at three supposedly hauntings/sites of hauntings. He presents the historical background, looking into the documents as well as more recent (at least in terms of the book circa 2007) paranormal investigations. The last section, however, feels slightly like filler, interesting it is, but still feels like filler. It reads more like an add on to his previous book (to be fair, he seems aware of this).
The first two sections are about a possible haunting/hauntings at a restaurant, the primary one being that of a young man who was hung for murder. The restaurant's hauntings include the family of past owners/builders among others. One of the others gave me pause, however. When the author and the paranormal team investigate the basement, where one of the team feels the presence of a ghost called Big John. If you are thinking, wow Big John sounds like a name a slave or an escaped slave would have, you would be right. Supposedly, Big John was an escaped slave who died in a tunnel collapse. The thing is, there is no evidence, just talk, that the site was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In some ways, it feels like a very stereotypical ghost story that you would have in the North about a Black man, even though there were slaves in the North. Even though, there were free Blacks in the North. The ghost of a black man, it seems, must always be a slave or an escaped slave. It is unclear whether Dacquino did research into the Underground Railroad story and the story of Big John.
Additionally, one of the other sections concerns Chief Nimham, a chief who fought in the French-Indian Wars as well as the American Revolution (on the side of Washington). I hadn't heard about this history and so it was quite nice to read about the actual history. It was something however, when it went to the investigation into the possible haunting of Chief Nimham's ghost. Dacquino works with the team he used at the restaurant but, to his credit, he also reaches out to a local Native American drum circle/ spiritual leaders, one of whom recounts a rather moving story of feeling Chief Nimham's spirit/presence. The problem is that one of the paranormal team, a team that appears to be white, supposedly gets a message from the Chief who basically forgives all white people and wants peace. This is the same Chief who took his grievances about stolen land all the way to the King of England. Not at all surprisingly, the white woman does not have this message when the Native American drum circle is present.
Needless to say, it felt very much like "what a white person/liberal" wants to hear. I say this as a white woman.
To be fair, Dacquino, on some level, seems to be aware of this, and in general the section is very respectful to Native beliefs and traditions. He spends far more time detailing the beliefs, traditions, and history of the story of Chief Nimham that are from the Native American sources/groups.
But still, that whole message bit, left a sour taste.
It is an interesting read if you like ghost folklore or NY history. It also makes really good use of historical documents.
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