Wright Square Savannah: The Hanging Square Curse & Tomochichi’s Restless Spirit

0:00 Speaker 1: Dear listener. Savannah, Georgia is a city designed with intention,

0:04 Speaker 1: every square carefully placed, every street aligned in a grid

0:08 Speaker 1: that was meant to bring order to a new world.

0:11 Speaker 1: But beneath that order is something far less controlled. Because

0:14 Speaker 1: when General James Oglethorpe established the Colony of Georgia in

0:19 Speaker 1: seventeen thirty three, he envisioned a place of structure, fairness,

0:23 Speaker 1: and even reform, a stark contrast to the chaotic and

0:28 Speaker 1: often brutal colonies that came before it. And yet, even

0:31 Speaker 1: in a city built on ideals, punishment still had a place.

0:36 Speaker 1: Right Square is one of Savannah's original four squares, laid

0:40 Speaker 1: out in that very first city plan, and from the

0:43 Speaker 1: beginning it served a dual purpose civic center by day

0:47 Speaker 1: and something far darker when required, because in the early

0:50 Speaker 1: days of the colony, this square became the site of

0:53 Speaker 1: public executions, where justice was not hidden away, but displayed,

0:59 Speaker 1: where the consequence senses of crime were meant to be seen, felt,

1:03 Speaker 1: and remembered by everyone who lived there, and they were.

1:06 Speaker 1: Executions in colonial Georgia were not rare events, and Right

1:11 Speaker 1: Square quickly earned a reputation as the place where sentences

1:15 Speaker 1: were carried out where gallows were erected, where crowds gathered,

1:20 Speaker 1: and where the final moments of the condemned became part

1:23 Speaker 1: of the city's living memory, so much so that locals

1:27 Speaker 1: began referring to it as Hanging Square, a name that,

1:31 Speaker 1: while no longer official, has never fully disappeared. But the

1:36 Speaker 1: darkness of Right Square doesn't begin or end with executions,

1:41 Speaker 1: because at the heart of the square's history is a

1:43 Speaker 1: man whose story complicates everything we think we know about it. Tomachichi,

1:49 Speaker 1: the leader of the Yamacraw people, was instrumental in the

1:52 Speaker 1: founding of Savannah, forming a crucial alliance with Oglethorpe that

1:56 Speaker 1: allowed the English settlement to survive in its earliest and

2:00 Speaker 1: most vulnerable days, and his influence extended far beyond local politics,

2:06 Speaker 1: because in seventeen thirty four, he traveled to England with Oglethorpe,

2:10 Speaker 1: meeting King George the Second, advocating for his people and

2:14 Speaker 1: helping shape the future of the colony in ways that

2:17 Speaker 1: few indigenous leaders were ever given the opportunity to do.

2:21 Speaker 1: When Tomochichi died in seventeen thirty nine, he was buried

2:25 Speaker 1: in Wright Square with full honors, a ceremony that included

2:29 Speaker 1: military recognition, a testament to the respect he had earned,

2:33 Speaker 1: and for a time his grave stood as a symbol

2:36 Speaker 1: of cooperation between cultures, a rare moment of mutual acknowledgment

2:41 Speaker 1: in a period often defined by conflict. But that respect,

2:45 Speaker 1: according to local tradition, did not last. As Savannah grew,

2:50 Speaker 1: as streets were expanded and the city evolved, Tomochichi's burial

2:54 Speaker 1: site was disturbed, and while historical accounts differ on the

2:58 Speaker 1: exact details the war, widely held belief is that his

3:01 Speaker 1: remains were either moved or lost during construction, replaced years

3:06 Speaker 1: later by the monument that now stands in the square,

3:09 Speaker 1: a tribute that to some feels more like an apology

3:13 Speaker 1: than an honor. And that's where the story begins to shift,

3:17 Speaker 1: because alongside the documented history of executions and colonial development

3:22 Speaker 1: is a growing body of first hand accounts that suggest

3:26 Speaker 1: right Square is not entirely at rest. Visitors reporting sudden

3:30 Speaker 1: drops in temperature and oppressive heaviness in the air, the

3:33 Speaker 1: unmistakable sensation of being watched, and whispers that seem to

3:37 Speaker 1: come from nowhere, fading the moment you try to listen

3:41 Speaker 1: more closely. Some claim to have seen figures near the

3:44 Speaker 1: monument at night, shadowy forms that do not move like

3:48 Speaker 1: living people. Others describe hearing footsteps behind them, only to

3:53 Speaker 1: turn and find the square completely empty. And then there

3:56 Speaker 1: are the more unsettling reports, people who say they felt

4:00 Speaker 1: physically unwell while standing in certain areas of the square, dizzy, nauseous, overwhelmed,

4:08 Speaker 1: as though the space itself was reacting to their presence.

4:12 Speaker 1: And while skeptics might dismiss these experiences as imagination, suggestion,

4:17 Speaker 1: or the natural eeriness of a historic place after dark,

4:21 Speaker 1: there is something difficult to ignore about the consistency of

4:24 Speaker 1: these reports, the way they echo across time, across visitors

4:29 Speaker 1: who had no prior knowledge of the square's reputation, who

4:33 Speaker 1: arrived expecting nothing and left with something they couldn't quite explain.

4:39 Speaker 1: Adding to this is the broader historical context of Savannah itself,

4:43 Speaker 1: a city that endured repeated outbreaks of disease, including devastating

4:48 Speaker 1: yellow fever epidemics in the late seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds,

4:52 Speaker 1: events that claimed thousands of lives and often required rapid burials,

4:57 Speaker 1: sometimes in locations that were never fully docked documented. And

5:01 Speaker 1: while Right Square is not officially recorded, as a mass

5:04 Speaker 1: burial site. Its long history as a central gathering place

5:07 Speaker 1: means it existed within a city where death was frequent, sudden,

5:11 Speaker 1: and often chaotic. So when you stand in Right Square today,

5:15 Speaker 1: surrounded by moss draped oaks and softly lit paths, it's

5:20 Speaker 1: easy to see the beauty, easy to feel the calm.

5:23 Speaker 1: But if you stay long enough, if you let the

5:25 Speaker 1: noise of the modern world fade just a little, you

5:29 Speaker 1: might start to notice something else, something quieter, something heavier,

5:33 Speaker 1: something that doesn't quite belong to the present. And maybe

5:37 Speaker 1: that's because it doesn't. Maybe Right Square isn't just a

5:40 Speaker 1: place where history happened. Maybe it's a place where history

5:44 Speaker 1: never quite left. And now, dear listener, a quick word

5:48 Speaker 1: from tonight's sponsor, because even historically cursed locations deserve cutting

5:53 Speaker 1: edge innovation.

5:55 Speaker 2: Have you ever been standing in a three hundred year

5:57 Speaker 2: old square, minding your own business when suddenly you feel

6:01 Speaker 2: like you've personally offended someone who died in seventeen forty two. Well,

6:05 Speaker 2: now there's a solution. Introducing Past Life Apology, the first

6:10 Speaker 2: app designed to help you apologize for things you may

6:13 Speaker 2: or may not have done in previous lifetimes. Simply open

6:17 Speaker 2: the app, select the century you're currently being judged by,

6:20 Speaker 2: and it will generate a sincere, historically appropriate apology, like

6:25 Speaker 2: I deeply regret any involvement I may have had in

6:28 Speaker 2: colonial misunderstandings. Past life apology trademark because you never know

6:34 Speaker 2: who's still holding a grudge.

6:36 Speaker 1: Until next time. Keep your voice low, your respect high,

6:40 Speaker 1: and if you ever feel like the ground beneath your

6:42 Speaker 1: feet is trying to tell you something, you might want

6:46 Speaker 1: to listen at a.

7:38 Speaker 2: M B a um behind them had been