Built in 1840, the Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah, GA is famous for its history and infamous for its ghosts. But is the legend surrounding the historic home true or is it mere folklore?
The Legend
The Sorrel-Weed House first belonged to wealthy shipping merchant Francis Sorrel. Though Francis was married, legend has it that a beautiful slave named Molly caught his eye. In fact, Sorrel was so enamored by the slave that he arranged for her to live in private quarters above the carriage house. There, the two romped until Sorrel’s wife Matilda discovered the sordid affair. Devastated by her husband’s betrayal, Matilda leaped from a second story balcony and died in the courtyard below. A few days after Matilda’s death, servants discovered Molly hanging from a noose in the carriage house. Now, the tragic women reportedly haunt the Sorrel-Weed mansion.
In 2005, the Ghost Hunters crew recorded this EVP which some believe is Sorrel’s slave screaming in pain (or pleasure).
Other eerie events at the 175-year-old site include odd thuds and bangs, disembodied voices, and shadowy forms. Many visitors also report feeling violently ill.
“Our investigation of the Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah, Georgia, gave me a three-alarm hangover,” Ghost Adventures star Zac Bagan writes in his new book, I am Haunted
The Truth
If the Sorrel-Weed House is truly haunted, it’s unlikely that Molly or Matilda are to blame. Census records show no proof of a slave named Molly ever living in the home, and there’s no evidence of a Sorrel-slave affair. And though Matilda Sorrel did leap her to her death, records show that she did so next door, not at the home she allegedly haunts.
Is the Sorrel-Weed House truly haunted? Or has the legend of Molly and Matilda led people astray? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
For detailed information about the true history of the Sorrel-Weed House, check out Haunted Savannah: America’s Most Spectral City
That didnt sound like screams of pain…
Screams of ectasy also a possibility
Just so yal didnt hear those. Creapy laughters on the video wen there investigating on the exact time 27.38 theirs a laugh n also again at 29.40. Wen its super cold listen carefully super freaky
The last time I visited Savannah (a few weeks ago) I tried to walk around the house seeing if I felt anything. I read a blog that negates the haunting to be of the two women. I got around to the ghost tour entrance that they use during the day and started feeling horrible. The doors to the basement were open. I don’t know if it was the house or just me but I suddenly felt weak and couldn’t walk in a straight line. I felt very faint and started to get a headache. When I returned to the place where I was staying, I slept for like two hours. I was fine after that.
We toured the Sorrel-Weed house yesterday. Loved it! I DID get really cranky and tired after we left, so I guess I can blame it on poor Matilda and Molly?It’s because we’ll been out walking around the city all day, but hey, any excuse to be a brat and blame it on someone else, right? Lol
Sounds like she said oh god, help! If that’s the sound of ectasy then she should a hung long time ago
Some people think it’s a woman groaning in pain, others think it’s a groan of sexual pleasure. Different people hear different things, it seems.
What really charged this house was the practice of voodoo. The room they practiced in is part of the tour, now trussed up a bit for the tourists. That’s not a haunting, that’s possession. #nativesavannahian
I visited this house recently as a skeptic. When I entered the home I felt Ill. Our tour guide wasn’t great and didn’t really tell us what had happened there until we got to courtyard. But yet I felt extremely ill and nearly vomited in courtyard when we got out of basement. It’s not that I didn’t believe in ghosts but I was indifferent. This incident has left me to do research on it as I was freaked out by my reaction and the fact that I felt fine after I left the house.