Monday, December 20, 2010

The Lady in Red







Photo copyright Natalie Maynor.



  1. I have my own theory.

    The description of the coffin as having been "form-fitting" suggests that it was a "Fisk metallic burial case." These coffins were patented in 1848 and mass-produced (in Long Island, NY) for sale to the public between 1849 and the mid-1850s. Such a coffin wasn't custom-made at all, but rather, was probably one of several standard sizes offered. It had an appearance of an Egyptian sarcophagus, constructed of cast iron with a glass viewing window over the body's face. The purpose of the coffin was to hermetically seal the body (immersed in preserving fluids, such as alcohol, brine, etc.) for transporting it long distances for burial, as this was in the days before embalming was commonly practiced. Fisk coffins sold for up to $50...a lot of money at that time (about $1500 today), but nonetheless equivalent to the price of a modern casket purchased from a funeral home.

    I propose that the woman had either died in a town (possibly Greenwood) upriver from Egypt Plantation, or had died a long distance away and was sealed in a Fisk coffin and shipped by steamboat to Greenwood, and then was buried in a town cemetery. The woman probably died in the early 1850s, perhaps from the yellow fever epidemic that hit the region in 1853. The coffin was only partially filled with alcohol (resulting in the later description of "spots of alcohol in her dress folds" when she was unearthed), which left a significant amount of empty space inside the coffin...enough space to render it buoyant when placed in water. During one of many subsequent floods that inundated Greenwood (including local cemeteries), the coffin floated out of its grave and drifted to the nearby Yazoo River. Once in the river channel, it drifted 15 miles downriver along countless meanders along the way. By pure chance, the river current floated the coffin out of the channel at Egypt Plantation and deposited it alongside the river, settling it in the mud and covering it over with sediments. Subsequent floods added a full 3 feet of sediments on top of it, leading to the erroneous belief by its discoverers that it was deliberately buried there by mourners. Research of Greenwood burials in the early 1850s (including yellow fever victims) might produce some possible identities of the woman.

    Just my theory.