The colour originated in the deep American South and the original Haint Blue creators were descendants of African slaves who worked on rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. They where known as Gullah (or Geechee) people.
They kept the traditions, stories, and beliefs of their ancestors, including a fear of haints (=ghosts) alive.
Luckily, the Gullah people remembered that these angry spirits cannot cross water.
According to some, the paint is meant to trick the haints into thinking they're facing a stream or other form of running water, which they cannot cross.
Others say that the paint is applied to the ceiling of covered porches to confuse spiders and wasps into thinking the ceiling is really the sky and therefore unsuitable for building nests in.
Some simply suggest that the color brings good luck.
Today, in cities and towns throughout the south, one will find these blues and greens tints on shutters, doors, porch ceilings and windowsills, gracing many historic homes. The pretty blues and greens compliment any grand old Victorian mansion, but the first painted strokes of Haint Blue adorned not the homes of the rich, but the simple shacks of African slaves.
