BLACK CAT TOURS - About Black Cat Tours

There are no bad tours in Charleston, only bad tour guides.

Mark R. Jones and Rebel Sinclair are full time professional
tour guides, authors, historians and paranormal investigators
who have given more than 10,000 tours.

Most Charleston tour companies take 20 people on each tour.
Often, tourists feel they are being herded around the city in a
large group with screaming kids with a tour guide who has
been working for 6 months or less.

BLACK CAT limits their night time tours to no more than 12 people, and NO SMALL CHILDREN.
Mark and Rebel had only one single goal when they started BLACK CAT -
offer quality tours with an experienced guide for EVERY tour.

BLACK CAT is the only company where your tour guide will be a published author, historian
and paranormal investigator, NOT a college student working a summer job.
We do not hire new tour guides every spring and teach them stories to tell.
Mark and Rebel are full-time, career Charleston tour guides.

WHY ARE WE CALLED 'BLACK CAT TOURS'?

In the 1640s Charles I of England owned a black cat whom he fiercely loved. In late 1648 the cat fell ill and died.
Charles I was heard to proclaim, “Alas my luck is gone.” The next day, he was arrested and charged with high
treason. Ultimately he was beheaded. His son, Charles II, is the namesake of Charleston, SC.

When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, they brought with them a devout faith in the Bible and a deep
suspicion of anything deemed of the devil. They viewed the black cat as evil - a companion, or a familiar to witches.
Anyone caught with a black cat would be severely punished or even killed. The early settlers of Charles Town were
hard-drinking Scot-Irish and English merchants, the complete antithesis of Pilgrims. In fact, they looked upon the
New England Puritans with suspicion and disdain.

Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan's Island in 1827-28. His story
'The Gold Bug' is set on Sullivan's Island. Other Poe stories which use Charleston as
a setting include "The Oblong Box" and of course, one of the most famous Poe
stories is titled "The Black Cat."

In the low country Gullah culture, Black Cats are considered 'plat-eyes' - spirits that
manifest into the shape of a feline only at night, and are usually found near
graveyards and cemeteries ... close to home.