Antebellum cemeteries in the heart of cotton country are about as Southern gothic as you can get.
I posted video from my most recent Rose Hill visit on social media.
A Tik Tok follower commented about how serene it was—a sentiment I share.
But the comment also got me thinking about the layers of history buried beneath the monuments at Rose Hill Cemetery. The commercial hub of middle Georgia in the 19th century, Macon’s economy on depended on cotton, and cotton depended on slavery. The beauty of Rose Hill belies these hideous foundations.1
Antebellum cemeteries in the heart of cotton country are about as Southern gothic as you can get.
That’s the gist of the brief video above.2
Rose Hill & the Allman Brothers Band
I’ve written quite a bit about Rose Hill. Here’s a sampling.
🍑 Who is Elizabeth Reed? (She’s more than just inspiration for the song’s title).
🍄 Macon and the Legacy of the Allman Brothers Band Part 1 and Part 2.
Lagniappes
Rose Hill’s 1973 National Register of Historic Places nomination form is worth a read if you’re interested in its non-ABB history.3
Footage from the Allman plot at Rose Hill February 2021 while I was in Macon to finish my first draft of Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East.4
Tombstone Eyes 5/1/96 A deep cut, Dickey worked on this song for a number of years and never (to my mind) quite got it right. It clearly meant a lot to him and is definitely about Rose Hill (“We used to hang out down by the railroad tracks”).5
Follow-up
Magic of Macon/In Memory of Dickey Betts, a partnership with artist Psychodelik Pete to put his poster on t-shirts for a limited time.
I announced I’d give a portion of the proceeds to the scholarship fund in Dickey’s honor. I’ve just made the first donation, a full 50% of the proceeds thus far.
Thanks for the support y’all.
Order your shirt here: etsy.longlivetheabb.com
Until next time…
Nancy Anderson, “Macon,” New Georgia Encyclopedia.
I’m blowin’ jazz and realized about :18 in that there’s a clearer point I wanted to make. I finished the take and then edited in the portion that starts at about :30.
It’s no surprise that there are zero mentions of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley in the 1973 nomination form. They had only just died and rock music was not yet considered historically significant.
All Long Live the ABB readers should already have a copy of Play All Night. Required reading.🍄
I have my suspicions it’s about the same person that “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” is about: Carmella Scaggs, but I have no way of confirming that.
