WEBVTT - S2 – 10: Invisible Hands 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.000 A bloody flag hung over the door. Cora stepped up 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.279 onto the platform, surrounded by black drapery that covered the 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.720 columns of the Mechanics Institute. After all, they were in 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.400 mourning for the honored dead. The flag didn't represent the 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.800 Civil War, though, and the blood on the flag wasn't decorative. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.680 It was a relic from a dark event that took 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:40.440 place A year before America's first black daily newspaper, the 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.559 New Orleans Tribune, had called a political convention. The Tribune 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.560 had been founded by an Afro Creole doctor named Louis 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.199 Charles Rudinat as rallying point for Louisiana radicals, and it 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.120 commanded respect among the state's reformers. They met to confirm 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.640 in eighteen sixty four state constitution that had stripped power 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:05.679 the planter class and abolished slavery. The backlash, though, was vicious. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.440 White planters had the ear of General Banks, the Union 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.320 Army commander governing the state. They said Louisiana should have 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.920 and I quote, a government of white people for the 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:21.800 exclusive political benefits of the white race. Yeah, they weren't 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.080 subtle about it at all. The planters were powerful, though. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.000 They convinced Banks to keep the plantation system, and he 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.520 used the Union Army to force black Louisiana's to keep 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.800 working the land of any planter who would declare loyalty 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.920 to the United States. His soldiers marched the roads, capturing 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.160 anyone who left their work. Meanwhile, he let imprisoned Confederate 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:50.320 soldiers walk. But the black folk on the sharp end 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.120 of these policies didn't go quietly. The Tribune started by 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.720 publishing articles showing how Banks was forcing workers to keep 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.560 living in slavery. It was a voice that would echo 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:04.240 back across the Atlantic, where Victor Hugo would return with 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.360 the letter to the Tribune, encouraging the radicals to keep 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:12.760 fighting for justice. Messages came from across the Last Horizon 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.960 as well. The spirit of John Brown appeared to Henri 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:20.120 and the Sir Harmonique with a word of celebration. He 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.680 praised the Tribune for its defense of black equality. So 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.400 in eighteen sixty six, when the Tribune announced a convention 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.959 to amend the earlier constitution and finally give black men 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.320 the right to vote in Louisiana, people came in crowds, 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.880 and the meeting started on a hopeful note too. That 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.760 first night, the city's police fought with a group of 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.320 armed delegates who were defending the convention and killed two 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.600 of them. Sadly, it was a dire omen of what 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.520 would happen the next day. When black delegates to the 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.680 convention arrived at the Mechanics Institute the next morning for 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.480 the second day of the meeting, they were confronted by 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.200 a crowd of white opponents that was swelling with anger. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:07.480 Here's historian Emily Clark. The day begins with some fanfare. 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.880 There's a little parade of black New Orleanans marching to 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.320 the Mechanics Institute to celebrate this. This is gonna be 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.600 a great day, but it's not. It ends up being 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.840 an absolutely horrid, horrid day because a white mob, aided 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:26.119 by local police and firefighters, storm the building and massacre 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.919 many of the delegates inside. Most of the delegates were unarmed, 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.320 but that white supremacist mob was heavily armed. Over forty 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.760 people died that day, almost all of them Black. Violence 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.440 like this in eighteen sixty six ended up galvanizing a 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.760 new brand of reconstruction politics. Nationally, which then worked harder 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:49.720 to promote black civil rights. In the wake of the violence, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.520 someone had collected the tattered flag and tucked it away. 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.160 When the community gathered to hold a memorial service for 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.080 the convention, they brought it out again. It was a 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.920 stark reminder of the nation they were working to build, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.240 and of the courage and sacrifices some had made to 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:10.000 bring that nation, that Louisiana, that New Orleans into being. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.520 It was exactly a year later that Cora stepped into 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.680 the Mechanic Institute to honor those who were killed that day. Afterwards, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.840 the Tribune published her poems call for solemn mournful bells 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.800 to ring out over the city. Nathan must have been proud, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.680 but when he wrote to the Rochester Express to give 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.360 them news on the progress of reconstruction, he wasn't praising 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.279 Corps powers of oratory. Instead, he was reporting on a 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.880 new scourge in the city. People were fleeing New Orleans 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:47.600 in the face of two deadly diseases, cholera and yellow fever. Nathan, 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.120 so often traveling those streets as he rallied for change, 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.240 came home one night in late September feeling dizzy and 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.039 shivering with fever. By October one, it had burned through 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:02.000 his body. Henrietta, less than a year old, wasn't strong 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:06.680 enough to fight off the infection. By October they were 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:15.520 both dead. Grieving her losses, Cora retreated back to the Northeast. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.120 The future that she had envisioned with her radical husband 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.960 had been taken away. If Cora was going to find peace, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.719 as so many others like her had wanted, it would 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.719 have to come from the most unusual of places, the 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:57.960 spirits of the dead. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron manky M. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.880 Benjamin Butler led the charge During the war. He was 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.640 the general in command of the Union forces that sees 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.040 New Orleans. When he returned to Massachusetts, he was elected 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.080 to the United States Congress. During the time that Nathan 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.560 Daniels was in Washington, he had connected with Butler, who 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.360 had once been his superior officer. In Washington. The two 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:45.480 men lobbied together for reconstruction, but they were opposed by 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.960 Andrew Johnson. Like General Banks, Johnson's opinions were swayed by 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.640 the powerful interests of Southern planters, who still wielded enough 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.640 influence to reach into the White House. It was the 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.400 compromises that President Johnson made and his v toe of 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.120 bills supporting the newly freed Black Americans that put him 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.800 in General Butler's crosshairs. After all, Butler had never been 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.400 shy about fighting southern white leaders he considered traitors to 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:17.000 the nation. They considered him evil. They called him beast Butler. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.560 When President Johnson was impeached, Beast Butler was the ringmaster 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:26.160 who choreographed the events. In the years before she went 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.920 to New Orleans, Cora had been the spirit adviser to 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.800 radical congressmen. Just like Butler, they pushed for reconstruction policies 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:35.840 that put the government of the South in the hands 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:40.120 of northern reformers. Lincoln's spirit had spoken through Cora frequently 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.480 and guided their approach to policy, alongside dead Boston abolitionist 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:48.280 ministers and the spirit of William Wilberforce. Now that she 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.040 had returned to the capital, with grief stripping her of 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.400 any shyness she might have had, she took bolder steps 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:59.080 than she ever had before. In September of eighteen sixty eight, 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:03.240 she joined a ritualist newspaper editor in confronting President Andrew 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.640 Johnson directly barging right into his White House office. As 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.560 soon as the door closed behind them, Cora opened her 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.440 mouth and laughed. But the voice wasn't her own. As 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.600 the papers reported it, Johnson was and I quote dumb 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:24.200 with astonishment because the laugh was Abraham Lincoln's. The voice 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:29.440 that followed said, let him laugh, who wins. No one 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.880 in the room, not Cora, not the reporter, not President 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.320 Johnson explained what the phrase meant. But it was just 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.400 months after Andrew Johnson had been impeached by the House 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.160 and the country was facing the new election that would 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.760 put Grants in office. Cora's spirit address to Johnson was cryptic, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.240 but there was no doubt that she wanted to confront 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.520 the president with the knowledge that the Spirits had not 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.720 given up on the nation, and anyone who opposed their 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.640 vision for reform was destined to fail. In May of 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.679 a t sixty nine, Cora was still thinking hard about 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.320 that nation, and she was seeing it with more and 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.160 more distress. After mourning the violence of white supremacy in 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.400 New Orleans, she came back to Washington with new words 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:16.239 of rebuke. She spoke in a meeting of the Universal 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.800 Peace Society, and she wasn't gentle a government that has, 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.520 for nearly a century enslaved the African race. She said, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.760 that proscribes the Chinese race, proposes to exterminate the Indian race, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.679 and persistently refuses to recognize the rights of one half 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:39.280 of its citizens. Women cannot justly be called perfect. If 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.640 Cora was thinking more expansively than ever before about how 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.240 the US government treated and control that's people, we can 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.280 see why she had just married for a third time. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.800 Her new husband, Samuel Tapin, was a spiritualist, a journalist, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.120 and a soldier who had been deeply involved in uncovering 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.920 the truth of a brutal mass murder of the Cheyenne 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.040 and Arapaho people in Colorado known as the Sand Creek Massacre. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.760 Samuel had investigated the killing for the federal government. He 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.319 determined that the commanding officer of the Third Colorado Volunteer, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:17.320 a Methodist minister nicknamed the Fighting Parson, had deliberately carried 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.000 out the slaughter in cold blood. As far as Nathan 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.520 could tell, this was a minister who had hoped that 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.959 by killing enough of his indigenous neighbors, he could raise 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.800 his public profile high enough to make a run at 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.760 political office. Nathan's reports went back to the federal government, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.600 and they went to the spiritualist press as well. His 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:42.640 opinions resonated with Corus Christians, he wrote, professing to be 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.520 followers of the Prince of Peace, had instead attacked Native 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:51.560 nations with sword and cannon, creeds and whiskey, bibles and 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.680 booie knives. And he wasn't just talking about one incident either. 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.000 In Samuel's eyes, if it wasn't the steel of sabers 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.360 and rifles threatened the indigenous nations, it was the steel 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.960 of the railroads cutting through the land monopoly, he wrote, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.679 is fast turning this western garden of the world into 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:14.200 a moral wilderness. Over the next few years, his opinion 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.280 would be published frequently by the Banner of Light. His 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.760 stature rose within the government at the same time. Ever 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.840 since his work investigating and testifying about the Sand Creek Massacre, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.840 Samuel had served on the Indian Peace Commission. In that role, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.040 he helped to negotiate treaties with the Plains nations. After 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.040 that he joined a separate commission, one task with making 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.960 sure the United States government followed those treaties. He had 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.360 little success, though, which only made him more angry. When 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.200 Samuel Tapin married Cora, she was reporting messages from Native 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.040 spirit guides like Weena. Together, the couple joined their voices 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.679 to shape spiritualist opinions about the ongoing seizure of native 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.920 land across the West. In fact, some seance circles even 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.880 reported messages from Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders who had died 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:11.400 at Sand Creek. Here's historian and browdie. Spiritualists are always reformers, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:16.559 and they are very active in Indian rights reform movements. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:22.160 They are extremely critical of massacres of Indians. They protest 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:27.040 against them. Samuel Tappan in particular, who is an Indian 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:34.079 rights reformer. With leading spiritualist speakers like Cora regularly giving 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.200 addresses on Indian rights, and government officials like Samuel Tapin 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:42.679 publishing in the spiritualist newspapers, spiritualists continue to find themselves 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.920 criticizing violence that was widely accepted in white communities across 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:53.960 the nation. Spiritualists are in an odd position in my view, 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:59.880 where they are espousing Indian rights, but they are all 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:07.240 so perpetrating stereotypes that place Indians in the past, in 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.920 a romantic past where Indians are appropriately living in the 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:17.840 spirit world and providing support for spirit mediums, rather than 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:26.040 exercising sovereignty in the present. But if the early seances 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.200 portrayed Native spirits as guides and healers for white spiritualists, 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.760 the tone changed as reports of more violence reached seance 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.920 circles in the East. When murdered leaders arrived to speak 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.520 at seance tables. During the reports of genocide and dispossession 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.839 of the eighteen sixties and seventies, Indian blessings on spiritualists 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.000 were replaced by Indian curses, curses on a nation whose 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:54.479 soldiers and citizens had murdered them. But as other newspapers 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.240 fell in line with the white supremacist rhetoric of writers 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.280 who pushed the idea of manifest destin the banner of light, 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.840 continued to print criticisms of that message. It was their 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.079 responsibility to heed the voices of the spirits, after all, 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:13.400 and report their messages to the reading public. Something was happening. 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.840 Spiritualists who had viewed slavery as a sin that left 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.600 a stain on the nation had begun to see America's 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.280 westward advancement into the territory of the Native Americans as 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.440 just more of the same. Their editorials called u S 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.880 policy a fraud and a swindle at a time when 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:34.560 few other voices would as violence piled on violence. Cora 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.200 and the radical politicians who heeded her spirits were sure 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.040 that this was just one more way that the nation 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.840 needed to be knocked down and made new again. But 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:55.480 to take those stains away, they needed more than hope. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.640 The letters burned so bright that they lit up the 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.960 whole room. They were right there, scrawled into the very 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:07.080 surface of the table. Too many spirits had spoken through 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.080 so many tables over the years to even count, but 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.320 this marble surface looked like it was inscribed with fire. 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:19.760 The word was a single Greek name, Demosthenes. It glowed 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.840 as a calling card for the stately figure dressed in 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.240 a tunic, solemn and graceful, who stood before Victoria wood Hall. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.200 She recognized him, of course. It was one of the 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.480 spirits who had appeared to her from time to time 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.200 over the years, and he'd always told her that she 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.000 would rise to great distinction in a city of ships. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.560 At last, he had arrived to reveal his identity to her, 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.920 because the time had come for her to lead her 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.280 people just as he had the ancient Athenians. Journey to 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.400 New York. The spirit told her there was a house 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.720 waiting for her there, along with the future he'd always promised. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:00.320 At least that's how Victoria told the story that Marble 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.600 Table had been in a Pittsburgh apartment where Victoria had 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.920 been staying after years of traveling with James Blood. She 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.160 had even been to disease stricken New Orleans, arriving just 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.480 as Cora left and shortly before Christmas. In eighteen sixty six, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.160 Victoria and James had published an advertisement for their powers 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.280 of healing to the city's alien residents. They had been 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.200 to Memphis, Tennessee, which had also been plagued by white 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.800 supremacist violence that year. Then they returned to St. Louis 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.560 before moving on to Chicago, where the courts were more 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.360 willing to hand out divorce papers than anywhere else in 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:38.680 the Midwest. But now in eighteen sixty eight, those trips 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.520 were coming to an end. It was time for Victoria 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:46.960 and James to build something. They weighed their options. Following 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.760 the Spirit of Demosthenes to New York was one, but 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.280 there was another leading light that they considered. Victoria reached 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.120 out to some friends in high places. She traveled to Galena, 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.960 Illinois and visited one of the officers who had come 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.120 man died James Blood's troops during the war. Since then, 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.200 Victoria and James had spent time with that officer's father 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.120 in Cincinnati and become friends with his family. And Victoria 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.200 thought it would be nice if he took on James 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:16.320 Blood as his personal secretary. Because you see, that man 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.000 was Ulysses S. Grant, and he had just won the 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.200 presidential election. He was headed to Washington. We can't blame 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.239 him if he didn't want to bring Blood with him 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.960 to the White House. Though you see, his escapades with 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.160 Victoria had already hit the papers where they were saying 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.200 that the gallant colonel had abandoned his family and thrown 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.800 away his money to travel the world with and I 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.960 quote the Witch of Washington Avenue. When Grant decided against 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.280 taking James Blood with him, it settled the matter. James 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.320 and Victoria set out for New York instead, But the 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.040 choices that Grant would make while in office would still 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.439 prove crucial to lifting Victoria's fortunes. First, though, there were 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:59.560 connections to be made in Manhattan. Here's author Mary Gabriel. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.040 When they arrived in New York, you know, they had 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.439 no connections there, and it was, as you say, the 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.840 entire Clafland clan followed. And so Victoria and Tenny got 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.480 to work doing what they did best, their only sure 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.200 way of making money, which was working as spiritualists. And 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.440 Tenney was an expert of laying out of hands, and 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:22.040 Victoria was the spiritualist advisor. And Buck Claflin did what 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.280 he did, which would go out and try to recruit clients. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.879 New York had plenty of possible subjects. Spiritualism was strong 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.840 in the city after all. But it wasn't just spiritualism 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.000 that interested Victoria. She didn't want to spend her days 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.320 entertaining a line of tourists. She wanted to finally put 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:44.240 her political vision into practice. For that she needed a patron, 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.920 a dedicated supporter with money. And there was one person 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.560 whose name was floating around the city with the echoes 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:55.680 of cash following after it, Cornelius Vanderbilt. His is a 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.479 name that many of us have heard before. His shipping 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.359 empire had brought him mounts of cash, but in the 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.600 years before Victoria arrived, he had felt the sting of 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.760 personal losses. His wife Sophia had recently died, and he 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.040 had lost a fortune in a battle with a fellow 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.800 Wall Street speculator over control of Western railroads. All of 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.720 this was well known, but Victoria's father, Buck Claflin, and 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:21.800 the rest of the clan that was settling in New 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:26.680 York learned something else. Through their spiritualist network. Cornelius Vanderbilt 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:32.280 was willing to hear from the spirits. Spiritualism may have 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.880 come into Vanderbilt's life through his daughter, who had been 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.639 a believer for years. By eighteen sixty four, Cornelius was 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.360 trying to contact the spirit of his dead father through 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.840 New York City mediums. By eighteen sixty eight, he was 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.560 feeling old himself and had already been turning to magnetizers 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.679 and spiritualist healers for relief from his aches and pains. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.320 So when Victoria and her sister Tenny arrived in New York, 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.880 the wealthy industrialist found comforts in a young woman who 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.520 mode of healing was the laying on of hands. Soon 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.720 the sisters were spending a lot of time with Cornelius. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.520 He often invited Tenney to his office and called her 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.080 his little sparrow, while she joked with them, read to him, 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:18.080 and laid on hands in Victoria, he got a personal medium, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.360 and as their conversations multiplied, he found in her an 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.919 unusual and inspiring energy and intelligence. He also started to 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.240 hear investment advice from the spirits, and he would give 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.560 it in turn, along with hefty fees for their services. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:38.440 Here's more from Mary Gabriel. And so they became confidence 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.320 of Cornelia's Vanderbilt, one of the most important and wealthiest 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.239 man in America. And you know, it's one of these 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.320 incredible American stories that you know, they went literally overnight 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.680 from being no one in New York to being within 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:57.959 the circle where all the powerful decisions are made. Demosthenes 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.639 hadn't steered her wrong, and neither had Cornelius. James Blood 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.760 took the money Victoria made from Vanderbilt and invested it 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.160 according to his advice. And as those investments blossomed, James 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.959 and Victoria put their heads together to decide how they 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:17.000 could put this growing fortune to use. The spirits, it seems, 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.919 weren't just ghostly visitors from another world. They also knew 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:32.800 just what made this world go round. Trouble was brewing. 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.000 In eighteen sixty eight, The Banner of Light published a 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.440 report from the third Annual Convention of the Illinois State 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.880 Spiritual Association with a foreboding warning. They said that there 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:49.439 was and I quote lack of harmony among spiritualists for 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.760 a movement built on the foundation of Andrew Jackson Davis's 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:57.119 harmonial philosophy, this was a dangerous thing to hear. Every 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.520 seance required harmony among the participants in order for the 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.920 spirits to be heard, and if they hope to keep 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.880 growing into an enduring cultural force, they would need that harmony. 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.240 The Reformers might have seemed to win the day and 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.880 motivate the victorious army through four long years of war. 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:17.919 They might even have been able to claim legions of 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.159 new converts as the widows and mourning mothers found their 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.160 way to the seance table, but their new world had 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.680 not yet clicked into place. In fact, cities all across 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.080 the country were still filled with conflict, and that included 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.520 the capital. But with President Grant in office, there were 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.400 some among the reformers who saw a clearer path into 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.840 the future. In eighteen sixty nine, sojourn nerd Truth was 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:44.520 headed back to Washington, d C. To be present for 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.440 the ratification of the fifteenth Amendment, finally ensuring that black 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.240 men had the right to vote to cross the entire nation. 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.600 On the way there, she stopped in New York City, 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:57.720 where she stayed with friends, including a visit to Leah 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.919 Underhill's Street, Brownstone. Although she had retreated from the public stage, 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.720 Leah had lost no stature among spiritualists and would still 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:10.600 give private sittings to friendly visitors, especially when that visitor 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:14.959 was so journal truth. She also stayed with Theodore Tilton, 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:19.240 the editor of a powerful liberal religious newspaper. Tilton was 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:21.320 well known for printing the power of God and the 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:24.840 rhetoric of reform. He was a natural friend to Sojourner, 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:27.439 but he and his wife Elizabeth were going to become 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:32.560 very familiar with Victoria Woodhall in the coming years. Also 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.199 while in the city, Sojourner spoke at one of the 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:38.800 most popular pulpits in the nation, Plymouth Church, where the 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:42.800 preacher Henry Ward Beecher held court. But Sojourner wasn't the 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:47.000 only one on the road to Washington that year. In January, 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.879 the city played host to the first national female Suffrage Convention. 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.080 With money in her pockets and a determination to join 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:57.639 the cause, Victoria Woodhall was one of the many to arrive. 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:01.480 There was hope in the air with the War one 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.040 and Grant elected. Surely it was time for every reformer 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:07.560 who had served in the cause of abolition to now 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:11.120 turn their interests towards the cause of women. Organizers who 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.720 expected it to be that easy, though, we're deeply disappointed. 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.800 Some leaders, like Elizabeth Katie Stanton and Susan B. Anthony 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:22.880 wanted to push for a sixteenth Amendment that would give 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:25.400 women the right to vote, but others thought a more 0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:28.879 gradual approach that pushed for suffrage state by state was 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:31.840 the only way to achieve that goal, and this difference 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.080 in approach led to some ferocious arguments. It seems that 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:38.159 advocates for women's rights were no more united than the 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:42.119 spiritualists were, and no surprise, they were often one and 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:46.120 the same. Victoria made her way back to New York 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.880 thoroughly unimpressed. To her the battles between the reformers were 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:53.920 what she called teacup hurricanes. Women needed to gain real 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:57.399 ground and fast, so she decided that at the first 0:24:57.440 --> 0:25:01.480 opportunity she would lead by example, an opportunity that swiftly 0:25:01.560 --> 0:25:06.040 came thanks to Cornelius Vanderbilt and Ulysses S. Grant. Here's 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:10.919 more from Mary Gabriel. Two of the big traders on 0:25:10.960 --> 0:25:14.680 Wall Street, Jim Fiskin and Jay Gould, knew that every 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:18.280 week Grant sold a lot of gold on the market 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:19.879 to try to keep kind of keep the coffers, the 0:25:19.920 --> 0:25:23.399 United States Conference government coffers full, and it was a 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:27.600 weekly sort of release of precious metals to enrich the government. 0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:32.400 Through an acquaintance, they decided to try to convince Grant 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:36.760 not to sell, and so that would drive up the 0:25:36.800 --> 0:25:39.080 price of gold and it would become even more precious, 0:25:39.080 --> 0:25:41.720 and it normally was well. That happened, but then Grant 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:44.680 learned of the scheme, and so in a counter move, 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:47.520 he opened the flood again and the gold started pouring 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:51.000 out onto the market. Vanderbilt had been privy to all 0:25:51.040 --> 0:25:53.879 of this, and so he told Tenney and Victoria that 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:55.600 this was going to happen. And so on the day 0:25:55.600 --> 0:26:00.840 this Black Friday in occurred, Victoria was there eyeing up gold. 0:26:01.200 --> 0:26:04.920 It was dropping in price, dropping like a stone, and 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:10.439 in that day she amassed a sizeable fortune. By the 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:13.000 end of the day, Victoria and Tenny had made a 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:17.200 stunning seven hundred thousand dollars in profit. Their names were 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:22.560 splashed across the pages Queens of Finance, Vanderbilt's protegees. With 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:26.160 their new fortune as ballast, Victoria and Tenny threw open 0:26:26.200 --> 0:26:29.560 the doors of Woodhull, Claflin and Co. The first woman 0:26:29.640 --> 0:26:33.639