Paintings aren’t the only inanimate objects plagued by the paranormal. Mirrors have long had a reputation for connecting the world of the living to the world of the dead, including a 200-year-old mirror at the infamously haunted Myrtles Plantation.

The Ghostly Mirror at The Myrtles Plantation
The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, LA bills itself as “one of America’s most haunted homes.” Though dozens of legends surround the historic property, the tale of the haunted mirror is one of the most famous.

According to popular legend, a slave named Chloe baked an oleander-laced cake and poisoned three members of the prominent Woodruff family: Sara, the lady of the plantation, and her two daughters. Some say Chloe purposely killed the family, while others insist she only meant to make them ill. In any event, Sara and the children died and are now trapped inside the old mirror, or so the stories go.

Visitors at the 217-year-old plantation report seeing handprints on the glass, prints allegedly belonging to the slain Woodruffs. Strange “drip” marks also run the length of the mirror, and no amount of cleaning can remove the residue. Visitors have also spotted figures in old-fashioned clothing lurking inside the mirror’s warped glass.

Though something strange may be going on with the mirror, it’s probably not Sara or her daughters. Despite the legend of a murderous slave named Chloe, plantation records show no record of a slave by that name and one of the Woodruff daughters survived well into adulthood. The other daughter perished from yellow fever, as did Sara Woodruff.

Is the Myrtles Plantation mirror truly haunted? Or are people letting their imagination get the best of them?

This photo of The Myrtles Plantation is courtesy of TripAdvisor