Twelve uncanny tales of the race-haunted nineteenth-century South, by authors both celebrated and obscure, are presented along with background readings, themselves often chilling, placing the tales in a historical context.

‘This stunning collection juxtaposes twelve riveting Southern Gothic tales, most of them rarely anthologised, and eleven revealing pieces of non fictional prose from the same time span, some by the same authors. Together they powerfully expose the darkest undercurrents that haunted America across the nineteenth century-and still haunt it today.’ - Jerrold E. Hogle, Professor Emeritus of English, University Distinguished Professor, University of Arizona, USA

‘This is a critically important collection of Southern Gothic tales, which are incisively contextualised to the issues of race and slavery. The inclusion of contemporaneous nonfiction situates these stories within the culture that produced them. This is an essential collection for anyone interested in the origins of the Southern Gothic.’ -Andrew Smith, Professor of Nineteenth-Century English Literature, School of English, University of Sheffield, UK

‘This concise anthology is a must-have for students, scholars and admirers of the Southern Gothic. Crow and Castillo Street provide a unique overview of the genre and its tensions. By juxtaposing primary sources against canonical fiction, this book subtly but brilliantly invites interrogation of the genre’s socio historical politics.’ - Maisha Wester, Associate Professor, American Studies; African American and African Diaspora Studies, Indiana University, USA