1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:04,200 Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: Kate Fox was in London in love and the first 3 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: in line. The brilliant chemist William Crooks was investigating spiritualism, 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: and where better to begin than with a girl who 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: started it all. After Leah's celebrity appearance at the London 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,639 Speaker 1: Art Gathery, her wealthy friends put their heads together and 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: determined that Kate needed to be pulled away from Maggie's influence. 8 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:34,479 Speaker 1: They agreed there could be no better change of scene 9 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: for her than British high society. Their money rolled out 10 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 1: the red carpet for Kate. Traveling companions and pocket money 11 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: were hers to command. She arrived dressed in fine new clothing. 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: Her parting from Maggie might have been painful, but the 13 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: optimism of her friends lifted Kate's spirits, and the sensation 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: that greeted her only raised them higher. Society receptions brought 15 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: with them some very welcome attention. Foremost among Kate's new 16 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: admirers was the British lawyer Henry Yunkan strikingly handsome and 17 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: an accomplished spiritualist writer. He had a magnetism that Kate 18 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: couldn't deny. But even as she held seances, appeared in 19 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:18,199 Speaker 1: London spiritualist newspapers and saw more of Henry Well. Kate 20 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: also found a glass back in her hand. That was 21 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 1: the brandy. There was always the brandy, but there was 22 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 1: no time to fight it. Kate began a series of 23 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 1: tests with the scientist William Crooks. He had once hired 24 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: Henry for legal advice on some of his business ventures, 25 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,399 Speaker 1: and the two men were friends. Now William Crooks was 26 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: on a hunt to identify the spectral energies that flowed 27 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: through a seance. Soon enough, Kate was navigating not only 28 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: Henry Yunkin's overtures but also William's prime. The scientist tried 29 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: to stop her from giving any seances without him. He 30 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: didn't mind that she was an alcoholic. He may have 31 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: even agreed with her opinion that when the alcohol shattered 32 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: her conscious mind, it made her more open to the spirits. 33 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: The results, as he would record them, were astounding for 34 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: power and certainty. I have met with no one who 35 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:14,919 Speaker 1: at all approached Miss Kate Fox, he wrote, in a 36 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,920 Speaker 1: rush of enthusiasm. It seems only necessary for her to 37 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: place her hand on any substance for loud thuds to 38 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: be heard. I have heard them in a living tree, 39 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 1: on a sheet of glass, on stretched iron wire, on 40 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: a stretched membrane, a tambourine, on the roof of a cab, 41 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: and on the floor of a theater. I have heard 42 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 1: them on a glass harmonicon. I have felt them on 43 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: my shoulder and under my own hands. Things came to 44 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:44,959 Speaker 1: a head though, when Crooks tried to push Henry away 45 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: from Kate, because it forced her to choose. Did she 46 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: want to continue submitting to the chemist's badgering and drink 47 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,359 Speaker 1: away her frustrations, or did she want to choose a 48 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,360 Speaker 1: life with Henry, who offered her his arms and his 49 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: opulent townhouse as refuge. One spring afternoon, Kate and Henry 50 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: were walking together through a friend's manicured gardens. He dropped 51 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: to a knee and took her hand. He asked her 52 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: to marry him. In response, Kate burst into tears. She 53 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: confessed her addiction and the cycles of recovery and relapse 54 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: that had kept her going back to the Swedish Movement 55 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: Cure Hospital for as long as she had lived in 56 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: New York. But Henry was insistent Kate followed in Leah's footsteps. 57 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: The New York Herald reported that at Kate's wedding, joyful 58 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: spirits raised the banquet table from the floor in salute. 59 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: Kate sat with William Crooks for a few more tests, 60 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: but not long after her marriage, Kate had a good 61 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: reason to finally cut them all off together. She was pregnant, 62 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: so William Crooks had to turn his investigations to others. 63 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: Fortunately for him, there were plenty of other mediums with 64 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:59,120 Speaker 1: wealthy benefactors willing to fund his experiments. In eighteen seventy three, 65 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: Cora a fived in England and she began to appear 66 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: in the chemist records assisting with his experiments. Assisting, that is, 67 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: because William Crooks had already focused his attentions on another medium, 68 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: Daniel Hume. He had been the favorite of the wealthy 69 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: and powerful for years, and his displays had gone from 70 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:23,479 Speaker 1: eye catching the downright astonishing. Daniel had been examined by 71 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: a slew of professionals. He had lost court cases and 72 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: fortunes with them. He'd been ridiculed by the poet Robert Browning, 73 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: and performed seances in France for Napoleon the Third. He 74 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: had even married into the Russian nobility before losing his 75 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: wife to tuberculosis. In eighteen seventy three. The Earl of 76 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:46,920 Speaker 1: Dunraven had just published a celebration of Daniel's mediumship. Now 77 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: Crooks was publishing astonishing reports about measuring Daniel's psychic force. 78 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,039 Speaker 1: Claims and counterclaims that rose up in response kept London buzzing. 79 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,719 Speaker 1: Those debates went on even after Daniel Hume left England. 80 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: He returned to Russia, where he married a second heiress, and, 81 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: like so many others, he retired from mediumship. Storms, contests, 82 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:13,719 Speaker 1: arguments and investigations would go on, stirring the public interest. 83 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,799 Speaker 1: But Daniel had risen into the upper echelons of European nobility. 84 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:29,040 Speaker 1: Now he considered himself above spiritualism as well. His last 85 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: years in Russia, France and Italy were spent in comfort, 86 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: and that final retirement into a life of ease was 87 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: just one more reason that Daniel Hume was remarkable. This 88 00:05:45,000 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: is unobscured. I'm Aaron manky H. New York City was 89 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: a boiling cauldron. Victoria Woodhall had beaten the Wall Street 90 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: casino when she made her run on Gold at the 91 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: end of eighteen sixty nine, but she didn't take her 92 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,840 Speaker 1: fortune and withdraw from the public debate. The public had 93 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,599 Speaker 1: tested spiritualist mediums for decades now, she wanted to turn 94 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: the tables. So when the New York Herald, excited by 95 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:47,359 Speaker 1: the novelty of the first woman stockbroker, offered Victoria a 96 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,359 Speaker 1: weekly column, she accepted. In her first article, she wrote, 97 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: while others of my sex devoted themselves to crusade against 98 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: the laws that shackle women in this country, I asserted 99 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: my individual into pendance, believing as I do, that the 100 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: prejudices which still exist against women in public life will 101 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: soon disappear. I now announced myself as candidate for the presidency. 102 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: That's right, Victoria Woodhull was running for president. She decided 103 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: to live the part too. Victoria left the house where 104 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 1: the spirit of Demosthenes has sent her. She took her 105 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: family and moved into a mansion in New York's Murray Hill, 106 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: just off Fifth Avenue. It was a massive and luxurious 107 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 1: home with columns and high windows. But if it all 108 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: made Victoria feel more legitimate, it didn't sway the opinion 109 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: of New Yorker's most still thought. Her announcement was only 110 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: a joke, as the pages of the New York newspapers testified. 111 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 1: Soon Victoria realized she needed to do more than just 112 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: make money and make pronouncements. She needed to make friends 113 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: and build power, and she needed a newspaper of her 114 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: own to do that. So in May, Victoria and her 115 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: sister Tenny launched a new magazine. They called it wood 116 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: Hole in Claughland's Weekly. Raising a banner like that brought allies. 117 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 1: One in particular, whose wild writing was just victorious style. 118 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: He considered himself a planetary grand master of all the Freemasons, 119 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: his words, not mine. He wanted to bring down the 120 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: powers that be and install himself as pantarch, benevolent ruler 121 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: of the world. Most people, though, just called him Stephen 122 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: Pearl Andrews. Here's author Mary Gabriel. He was one of 123 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: these fringe figures in the United States who had dabbled 124 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: in everything philosophy, journalism, academics, a bit of politics. And 125 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: so he came to her as a journalist and said, 126 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: you know, I can help you edit this paper. And 127 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: in fact, she was so busy launching her political career 128 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:51,720 Speaker 1: and juggling so many things that she handed it off 129 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: to him with Blood supervising and Stephen Pearl Andrews under 130 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: his direction, the Woodhull and Claughland's Weekly became an incredible, 131 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: creaking Oregon. He was afraid of no one. No one 132 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: else was publishing articles attacking marriage as the shoals that 133 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: wrecked American women. No one else in polite society was 134 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:14,960 Speaker 1: publishing articles about the New York Police working as hired 135 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: guns for its brothels. No one else was perceptively exposing 136 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: the frauds and hijinks of Wall Streets capitalists. After all, 137 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,839 Speaker 1: what other papers were helmed by Cornelius Vanderbilt's personal medium. 138 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: Victoria had the inside scoop on the predatory schemes of 139 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:35,520 Speaker 1: the insurance company boardrooms and the railroad tycoons. So Stephen 140 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: and Victoria came out swinging. By the fall of eighteen seventy, 141 00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: the paper was flying out to twenty thousand readers. Still, 142 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: Victoria was a candidate without a party. She was an 143 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: outsider to spiritualist circles and a newcomer to the cause 144 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: of women's rights. But with Stephen Pearl Andrews guiding the magazine, 145 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: Victoria could set her mind on Washington, and she finally 146 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:02,800 Speaker 1: found an ally there as well. Soon enough, Massachusetts Congressman 147 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 1: Beast Butler strolled into Victoria's luxurious mansion to make her acquaintance. 148 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: He had seized New Orleans with the Union Army, he 149 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: had impeached a president with his radical congress. Now he'd 150 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: heard a new call, one that demanded votes for women, 151 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: and he came to lend his aid. Victoria and Butler 152 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,559 Speaker 1: plotted ways to put her in front of a Congressional 153 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: committee to read an argument for women's suffrage. The newly 154 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 1: past fourteenth Amendment recognized the rights of all people born 155 00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: or naturalized in the United States, and because women were people, 156 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,720 Speaker 1: they had the right to vote as well. It was 157 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,880 Speaker 1: that simple. When Butler introduced Victoria to the House Judiciary 158 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:45,160 Speaker 1: Committee in January of eighteen seventy one, she was joined 159 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:48,120 Speaker 1: by Susan B. Anthony, and she was the first woman 160 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: to address a Congressional committee in American history, and that 161 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,839 Speaker 1: success brought others. The first invitations came from women's rights groups. 162 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: Victoria started speaking to gatherings around New York. Soon some 163 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: newspapers were calling women's rights activists wood holds women, much 164 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,199 Speaker 1: to the frustration of longtime leaders like Elizabeth Katie Stanton, 165 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: but others wanted Victoria's novel and inspiring presence. She spoke 166 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 1: at the Cooper Institute to a labor meeting in that spring, 167 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: and as she made circuits through various reform groups who 168 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 1: saw her new prominence as a sign of hope, Victoria 169 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: started to imagine a new political party that could unite 170 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:32,079 Speaker 1: them into something real. In fact, Victoria was elected president 171 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: that fall. When she arrived at a meeting of the 172 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:37,760 Speaker 1: American Association of Spiritualists, she found a group that was 173 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,560 Speaker 1: hardly as large as their name promised. It seemed that 174 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:45,080 Speaker 1: battles between trance speakers and materialization mediums throughout the eighteen 175 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:50,559 Speaker 1: sixties had whittled down their numbers, but Victoria spoke anyway. Eventually, 176 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 1: her lecture brought her to her favorite subject, the toxic 177 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: institution of marriage and the double standard that crushed women 178 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: for things their husbands did without shame. A heated debate 179 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: followed at the meeting, both over changing the meaning of 180 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: marriage and about Victoria herself. Was she the spiritualist whispered 181 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: a free lover? Still, despite the controversy, and despite Victoria's 182 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,320 Speaker 1: visit among them being her first, they decided she was 183 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 1: now the right person to lead them. When their votes 184 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:24,679 Speaker 1: came in, Victoria was president of the American Association of Spiritualists. 185 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: The choice sent ripples of concern through spirit circles around 186 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: the country. Victoria traveled to speak across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 187 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:37,679 Speaker 1: Michigan in the fall of eighte She was met with 188 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: and trailed by hushed voices. She gained followers along the way, too, 189 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:46,320 Speaker 1: but the rumors also grew. The word had gone round 190 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,880 Speaker 1: that Victoria was living in her New York mansion with 191 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: both of her husband's James Blood and Kenning Woodhall. A 192 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: fight between James and her mother had reached the court, 193 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,520 Speaker 1: and the press had published the revelations of their unusual 194 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:03,839 Speaker 1: home life. For decades, concerns over free love ism had 195 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:07,439 Speaker 1: kept some women's rights activists from embracing spiritualism and its 196 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: radical impulses. The fever came to a head that November 197 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: when Victoria took the stage at New York's Steinway Hall 198 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:19,199 Speaker 1: and gave a talk she advertised as Principles of Social Freedom. 199 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: The hall was packed, thousands more milled outside. Victoria took 200 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,439 Speaker 1: the stage and began to lay out in stark terms 201 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: that women needed the same freedoms as men, the freedom 202 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:32,440 Speaker 1: to end a bad marriage, the freedom to start over 203 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:36,560 Speaker 1: without being condemned by society. In fact, she said marriages 204 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 1: without love were adultery and marriage laws should be repealed. 205 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:45,000 Speaker 1: This message shocked the crowd into an angry upheaval, but 206 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: that's because it wasn't direct enough. They wanted something more. 207 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 1: Someone in the crowd shouted the question they all wanted, answered, 208 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:57,199 Speaker 1: are you a free lover? Here's Mary Gabriel. Once again, 209 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: Victoria flat and read, Hi, Yes, I'm a free lover. 210 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,840 Speaker 1: I have an inalienable, constitutional, and natural right to love 211 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:08,360 Speaker 1: whom I may to love as long or short a 212 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: period as I can, to change that love every day 213 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: if I please, And with that right, neither you nor 214 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,520 Speaker 1: any law you can frame have any right to interfere. 215 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: So with that statement, Victoria became, really, I would say, 216 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:25,720 Speaker 1: without doubt, the most notorious woman on the speaking circuit 217 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:30,280 Speaker 1: in the United States. Victoria's words dropped like a hammer 218 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,760 Speaker 1: on her political aspirations. The New York Herald called her 219 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: speech the most astonishing doctrine to ever be heard in America. 220 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:41,680 Speaker 1: Victoria had admitted to being the thing her accusers shouted 221 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: about the loudest. The president of the Spiritualists, who wanted 222 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: to be the president of the nation, was a free 223 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:51,680 Speaker 1: lover for the women of her world. This was a 224 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:55,120 Speaker 1: radical liberty. But the question now hung in the air. 225 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: Could Victoria continue building power or would this public confession 226 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 1: of something so hated shatter her life into pieces. The 227 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: land of the free, Sojourner Truth still saw that vision 228 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: of a future held out to Black Americans. The political 229 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 1: radicalism of the Spiritualists in New York was shaking its 230 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:26,360 Speaker 1: lecture halls and printing presses. That was Sojourner Truth style, 231 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:30,160 Speaker 1: just as she had done decades before. By now, though, 232 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,560 Speaker 1: Sojourner couldn't keep the same pace of lecturing and, as 233 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: she called it, agitating. But she had lived long enough 234 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 1: to see emancipation still following the voices of the spirits 235 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: and the voice of God, she knew the work wasn't 236 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:47,400 Speaker 1: finished quite yet. Like so many Spiritualists, she supported the 237 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,240 Speaker 1: work now to get women the vote and something else 238 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: that was just as close to her heart. She wanted 239 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 1: to see a place in the United States where Black 240 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 1: Americans could live in peace. Sojourner had found places for 241 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,080 Speaker 1: herself in the American landscape. She had purchased land in Rochester, 242 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: New York, as well as in Battle Creek, Michigan. They 243 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: were homes where her daughters now lived. Ever since the 244 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: end of the Civil War, when she worked with Amy 245 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,720 Speaker 1: Post to shelter freed people around Rochester, she had kept 246 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: up that search in the eighteen seventies, even as she 247 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: approached the threshold of her own death. She pressed on 248 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,200 Speaker 1: in her work. Here's historian Margaret Washington. I think that 249 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: is the culminating point of her life, although she continues 250 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: to be active. She's very active in the anti capital 251 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:38,640 Speaker 1: punishment movement and the temperance movement. But I think that 252 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: in terms of her service to African Americans, it is 253 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:46,680 Speaker 1: the petition movement to create a black homeland in the West, 254 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 1: because black homeland is the mantra right. It first starts 255 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: with trying to get them settled in the West. And 256 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,320 Speaker 1: there's no question that she saw the need. On a 257 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,240 Speaker 1: visit to Washington in eighteen seventies, she saw how many 258 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,280 Speaker 1: freed people were still without homes and jobs in the capital. 259 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:07,240 Speaker 1: Elsewhere across the country, the government was carving open land 260 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: for the railroad magnates and offering ownership to white homesteaders. 261 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,159 Speaker 1: The government has given land to the railroads in the West, 262 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: she told one audience, so why couldn't it do so 263 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,240 Speaker 1: much for the people whose labor had built the country's wealth. 264 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,879 Speaker 1: With that in mind, she traveled throughout New England, selling 265 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:28,440 Speaker 1: photographs of herself and asking her fellow reformers to add 266 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: their names to her request that Congress should provide homes 267 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:36,879 Speaker 1: for black Americans on federal land. After being invited to 268 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 1: a meeting of the American Women's Suffrage Association in Boston, 269 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: Sojourner gave a fiery speech defending women's right to vote 270 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,639 Speaker 1: and included a call for land and education for the 271 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,240 Speaker 1: freed people. When one of the leaders of the meeting 272 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: asked so journal to be brief, she shot back that 273 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:55,680 Speaker 1: she would speak when the spirit moved her, not when 274 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,239 Speaker 1: people moved her, which, in her defense, had always been 275 00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: so journals way. The spirit moved Sojourner into the halls 276 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 1: of Congress to see her petition brought up for discussion, 277 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,080 Speaker 1: but despite the number of people who had signed it, 278 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: she was let down. Benjamin beast Butler, her trusted radical, 279 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,680 Speaker 1: never even brought the motion to the floor, even without 280 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: a bill to support them. Though black Southerners were leaving 281 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: the South to settle in the Western States in the 282 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,439 Speaker 1: years that followed, Sojourner said she traveled to greet them 283 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,159 Speaker 1: in the Land of John Brown, as she called it, 284 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: and it was in Topeka, Kansas, that Sojourner found a 285 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,399 Speaker 1: movement of people arriving to start over. They had begun 286 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:40,240 Speaker 1: their move in Louisiana. The years after the Mechanics Institute 287 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,439 Speaker 1: massacre in eighteen sixty six had not been easy in 288 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,919 Speaker 1: New Orleans. But while some Black Southerners marched north and 289 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:49,359 Speaker 1: west to settle at a distance from the trials of 290 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: the city, others, like the Sir Carmonique, stayed put, and 291 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:56,920 Speaker 1: the spirit moved them as well, to continue remaking their 292 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,880 Speaker 1: city itself into the land of the free. When JB. 293 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:04,399 Speaker 1: Valmore died in eighteen sixty nine, the Sir Carmonique shrank 294 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,639 Speaker 1: by one member, but of course he didn't leave them. Henri, 295 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:11,400 Speaker 1: who brought the cirque together before the war and reunited 296 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 1: it after it was over, recorded messages from his dead friend. 297 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:18,120 Speaker 1: He wrote that Valmore came back in part to forgive 298 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: on re for any tensions in their partnership and to 299 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: urge the circle to continue their work so no. Losing 300 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: one of their leaders didn't slow the Sircarmonique down. In fact, 301 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 1: it was in the first years of the eighteen seventies 302 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: that Henri and the other spiritualists in the circle were 303 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: at their most active. One of their members, who owned 304 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: a cigar shop, began hosting their seances, and the fate 305 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: of the city again came to the four in the 306 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: messages they received from spirit visitors. While the spirits of 307 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: loved ones like Henri's father and now JB. Valmore continued 308 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: to visit their seance tables, it was the warnings against 309 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,159 Speaker 1: the greed of materialism that rose to the top of 310 00:19:56,200 --> 00:20:00,800 Speaker 1: their concerns. Over and over, the spirits emphasized politics of 311 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,080 Speaker 1: greed created unfair divisions between the rich and the poor. 312 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: As the spirit of JB. Valmore reminded the circle he 313 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,200 Speaker 1: had been a humble blacksmith, but in the Circle of Harmony, 314 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: his love and charity paved the way for him to 315 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: be a true apostle. He was a reminder that Henri 316 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: would take to heart as his position in the city 317 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: continued to rise in eighteen seventy, he was appointed to 318 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 1: be the tax assessor for the city's third district and 319 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,240 Speaker 1: then director of a parish school board. While Sojourner worked 320 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:32,919 Speaker 1: a secure education for the freed people of the West, 321 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,320 Speaker 1: Henri did the same for the black community in New Orleans. 322 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 1: Here's historian Emily Clark. He serves a term in the 323 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,439 Speaker 1: Louisiana legislature. He serves on a school board, not the 324 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: school board of his father, but for public schools. They've 325 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,400 Speaker 1: got a pretty respectable home in the Tremain neighborhood, kind 326 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: of living a New Orleans middle class what we might 327 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,600 Speaker 1: call middle class for the re contry Auction period life. 328 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,480 Speaker 1: As un resettled into the city's public life, the spirits 329 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: continued to urge him and the other members of the 330 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: cirque to remember the poor. The message came from them 331 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 1: from the spirit of Senator Daniel Webster, who inspired Unrea's ambitions, 332 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: but it also came from anonymous spirits who drew his sympathy. 333 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:24,800 Speaker 1: Once the spirit of a woman arrived at a seance 334 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,399 Speaker 1: and simply said that she was one who suffered. The 335 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:32,400 Speaker 1: explanation of that suffering could have been printed by Victoria Woodhall. 336 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: This nameless woman was born to a wealthy family, she 337 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,280 Speaker 1: told the circle, but she married a predator. He scooped 338 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,359 Speaker 1: up her inheritance and then abandoned her. In the years 339 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:45,240 Speaker 1: that followed, she had supported herself through sex work, but 340 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,240 Speaker 1: found no one to help her until she crossed into death. 341 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: Now she said she was comforted by Mary Magdalen the 342 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,240 Speaker 1: New Orleans at the seance table of men. Her radical 343 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:58,840 Speaker 1: message came across clearly. A society that would judge and 344 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:05,760 Speaker 1: punish women for reviving abuse was unjust. A society in harmony, however, 345 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 1: would look like something new, Not a hierarchy, but a 346 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,439 Speaker 1: circle where the poor were lifted up and men and 347 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,040 Speaker 1: women joined hands to seek out the wisdom of the 348 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: past and map out the future. And it was a 349 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,600 Speaker 1: future Henri and the others we're still willing to fight for. 350 00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:33,560 Speaker 1: Theodore Tilton knew what the future looked like. He had 351 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: fallen in love, first with the writings of Karl Marx, 352 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,000 Speaker 1: who inspired his belief in a democracy that could overthrow 353 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,280 Speaker 1: the rich and powerful, and second with a fierce woman 354 00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:46,399 Speaker 1: who was determined to do the same, a woman by 355 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: the name of Victoria Woodhull. Through seventy one, while Victoria 356 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,719 Speaker 1: was campaigning for president and publishing the dirt on her 357 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,800 Speaker 1: enemies among the rich and powerful, she was also spending 358 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: a lot of time with Tilton. Still then had flown 359 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,960 Speaker 1: into the public eye as a journalist and as a 360 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,600 Speaker 1: protege of Henry Ward Beecher, New York City's celebrity pastor, 361 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:09,920 Speaker 1: and that year his journalistic eye turned toward a conflict 362 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,159 Speaker 1: that would grow more important over the coming decade. Here's 363 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: Mary Gabriel once again. The kind of conversations that were 364 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: murmured before the Civil War in the eighteen forties, and 365 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,240 Speaker 1: the kind of revolutions that occurred in eighteen forty eight, 366 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 1: and the discussions and the political arguments that began to 367 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: heat up erupted in the Civil War in the United States, 368 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,320 Speaker 1: But afterwards they didn't die down. In fact, groups coalesced, 369 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: and two of the most powerful groups to call us 370 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,119 Speaker 1: were labor unions. And this was something that was happening 371 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:41,719 Speaker 1: in Europe. And in fact, once again, when we can 372 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,600 Speaker 1: talk about Carl Marks, because he had formed in eighteen 373 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:49,159 Speaker 1: sixty four something called the International working Men's Association, and 374 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 1: the International working Men's Association had already made its mark 375 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: on history. Mars was in London, but some of the 376 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: group's French members had joined a revolution in France. They 377 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 1: had seized Paris and ruled for two months in the 378 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,200 Speaker 1: spring of eighteen seventy one. They called their government the Commune. 379 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,400 Speaker 1: Anxiety about the same thing happening in the United States 380 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,159 Speaker 1: bubbled from the New York newspapers, but the Spiritualists weren't worried. 381 00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: In fact, the Banner of Light proclaimed to its readers 382 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,040 Speaker 1: that the principles of the Commune were the same as 383 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: the principles of spiritualist seedbeds like Hopedale. To a reformer 384 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: like Tilton, their argument was extremely convincing. With Tilton now 385 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,120 Speaker 1: on their team, Victoria and Tenny decided to make their 386 00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:33,360 Speaker 1: newspaper a mouthpiece for the International. As their publicist, Victoria 387 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,520 Speaker 1: became an organizer for the International in New York. She 388 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,280 Speaker 1: gathered workers to her meetings and sent word to Marx 389 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,120 Speaker 1: that he had followers in New York City. Soon enough, 390 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: Victoria's cohorts were recognized as Section twelve of the International 391 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: working Men's Association. And if they were going to turn 392 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: their weekly newspaper into the mouthpiece of the Working man's movement. 393 00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 1: They were going to go all the way. Victoria had 394 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,080 Speaker 1: never done anything less, So on December eighteen seven, he 395 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,199 Speaker 1: one Woodhall and Clafland's Weekly published the Communist Manifesto in 396 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: English for the first time. At first, Tilton was introducing 397 00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: Victoria at lectures, then he was defending her in his articles, 398 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,960 Speaker 1: and he was there by her side when Victoria's kaleidoscope 399 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,640 Speaker 1: of radical allies announced that they were forming a new 400 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: political movement, the Equal Rights Party. They took Victoria as 401 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,400 Speaker 1: their presidential nominee and invited Frederick Douglas to run as 402 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:29,399 Speaker 1: her vice president. Tilton even wrote a glowing biography of 403 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,240 Speaker 1: her that was rushed to press to support her presidential run. 404 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,240 Speaker 1: It was very good for Victoria. It may even have 405 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,440 Speaker 1: been the main reason she was elected president of the 406 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,720 Speaker 1: Association of Spiritualists. But even as Tilton was learning the 407 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 1: story of victorious life, she was learning his as well. 408 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,920 Speaker 1: And this is where gossip turned to scandal. Because Theodore 409 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,800 Speaker 1: Tilton was rowing with Victoria on the river, He was 410 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,200 Speaker 1: eating late dinners of chicken cake and champagne inside her bedroom. 411 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:57,880 Speaker 1: He was spending nights alone with her on her mansion's 412 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:02,040 Speaker 1: roof and what she learned, well, it made her angry 413 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:05,160 Speaker 1: because among Tilton's stories was the revelation that for years 414 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 1: Henry Ward beach Her had carried on an affair with 415 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: Tilton's wife. In fact, it was one of the events 416 00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: that had driven Tilton into Victoria's arms. And I hope 417 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,600 Speaker 1: you can see why she was so enraged. Victoria had 418 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 1: declared to the world that she was a free lover, 419 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: and it had sent a storm of hate and judgment 420 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: to rain down upon her. Heck, political cartoonist Thomas Nast 421 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,560 Speaker 1: even published a cartoon about her that called her Mrs Satan. 422 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: But now she had learned that New York's darling minister, 423 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 1: the man who could do no wrong in the public eye, 424 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,840 Speaker 1: had actually committed a much bigger sin. Naturally, she was livid, 425 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,720 Speaker 1: and so she did the only thing she knew. She 426 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:47,680 Speaker 1: published Here's Mary Gabriel once again. And so in her 427 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,280 Speaker 1: newspaper in October in eighteen seventy two, she decided to 428 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,919 Speaker 1: tell the story of the Beach Your Tilton affair, and 429 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,440 Speaker 1: in black and white. In this newspaper she went into 430 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,160 Speaker 1: all the gory details and exposed him for who he 431 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,359 Speaker 1: was and brought down this house of cards, which was 432 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:11,080 Speaker 1: the Beecher family, the Congregational Church in Brooklyn, the religious 433 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:16,120 Speaker 1: pillar upon which so much of the moral American myth 434 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 1: was built. She brought it down in that article, and 435 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:26,240 Speaker 1: the issue flew off the stands. In response, the Beecher family, 436 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,679 Speaker 1: especially Henry's sister Harriet Beecher Stow, went into overdrive to 437 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,679 Speaker 1: defend him. Court battles and published attacks racked Victoria and 438 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: eventually drained her fortune. Worst of all, Cornelius Vanderbilt withdrew 439 00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,719 Speaker 1: his support. She had become a liability to the women's 440 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 1: movement too. In the months that followed, Victoria was set adrift. 441 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 1: And so Victoria, in taking that rash step, basically ended 442 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,399 Speaker 1: her political career. Ironically, it was the month before she 443 00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,760 Speaker 1: was on the ballot as a presidential candidate that she 444 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,879 Speaker 1: at this piece, or that she allowed this piece to 445 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,400 Speaker 1: be published in her newspaper, and on the morning of 446 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:10,880 Speaker 1: the election day she was in jail for having distributed 447 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: that newspaper through the mail, thereby violating u S obsanity laws. 448 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,159 Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the political support in the United 449 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,800 Speaker 1: States that was pulled out from under her. When Karl 450 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,120 Speaker 1: Marx called a meeting of the International working Man's Association 451 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,919 Speaker 1: later that year, they looked right at Section twelve in 452 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: New York and made a decision any section of their 453 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: organization had to be strictly materialist. Not only was Victoria's 454 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: New York chapter awash and scandal and fighting for women's rights, 455 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,960 Speaker 1: but it was also heated by the fires of spiritualism 456 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: and guided by the voices of the dead. As far 457 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: as Marx was concerned, Section twelve was an embarrassment. As 458 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:55,600 Speaker 1: a result, the leadership of the working Men's Association kicked 459 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: them to the curb. Looking back, it was more than 460 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,920 Speaker 1: a little i run. After a seemingly endless run of success, 461 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,560 Speaker 1: Victoria Woodhall had been defeated by the one enemy she 462 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: had never thought to prepare for herself. In September of 463 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three, another panic swept Wall Street over drafts 464 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,200 Speaker 1: on railroad credit led to a spring of bankruptcies, and 465 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,480 Speaker 1: the domino effect of a crash followed. Five thousand businesses closed, 466 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: a quarter of New Yorkers were unemployed. That was also 467 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:37,960 Speaker 1: the month of Victoria closed the doors on her own 468 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,200 Speaker 1: brokerage firm, but it didn't extinguish any of the fierceness 469 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: in her voice. She took to the stage at the 470 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 1: Cooper Union in fury, railing against the banks on behalf 471 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,760 Speaker 1: of the lower million, as she called them, who were 472 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:54,080 Speaker 1: always exploited by the upper ten. In the months that 473 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,520 Speaker 1: followed her historic address to Congress, one of Victoria's most 474 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,360 Speaker 1: prominent followers had been Isabella Beecher hook Her. Isabella went 475 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:03,800 Speaker 1: so far as to call her new friend an inspiration, 476 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: no longer a banker or businesswoman, but a prospective queen. Now, though, 477 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: that kind of talk was gone, and not just for 478 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,080 Speaker 1: Victoria but also for other people whose stories had been 479 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,640 Speaker 1: at the heart of spiritualism. In eighteen seventy two, Isaac 480 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: Post passed away, and for a while his widow, Amy 481 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:25,440 Speaker 1: left her home in Rochester to find comfort with an 482 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:30,040 Speaker 1: old friend. She visited Maggie in New York. The two 483 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,560 Speaker 1: women were both bereft. Maggie was missing her sister Kate, 484 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 1: hanging on the news about her nephews that would travel 485 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,960 Speaker 1: across the ocean from England. Organizing support for suffrage was 486 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,480 Speaker 1: still at the top of Amy's mind, but the loss 487 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,120 Speaker 1: of Isaac had cut her loose again, leaving her to 488 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:49,240 Speaker 1: search for where she might belong, and after her dramatic 489 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,360 Speaker 1: public fall from grace, so was Victoria. Amy Post arrived 490 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,320 Speaker 1: in New York just as Victoria was leaving in eighteen 491 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: seventy four. She traveled west, lecturing as she went. She 492 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,000 Speaker 1: had to return frequently to New York, though, to face 493 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 1: a series of snarls in court charges of libel and 494 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: public obscenity, but also to provide testimony in the case 495 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,600 Speaker 1: launched between Tilton and Beecher. In the wake of the scandal, 496 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,560 Speaker 1: the respectable circles of wealth and prominent families no longer 497 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,440 Speaker 1: wanted to have anything to do with Victoria. But for 498 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: a traveling speaker, a bad reputation is a great advertisement. 499 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,560 Speaker 1: In fact, the widespread hatred of her ideas was exactly 500 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,440 Speaker 1: what made her popular, and it provided just the right 501 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,080 Speaker 1: amount of cover for anyone who did want to come 502 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,800 Speaker 1: and listen to what she had to say. But there 503 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: was one group who didn't cut their ties with Victoria. 504 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: They were used to be in the outside force that 505 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,720 Speaker 1: put pressure on American life from the margins. They were 506 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: used to being mocked by conservative moralizers while they offered 507 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: their own alternative moral vision for the nation. So in 508 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five, the Universal Association of Spiritualists re elected 509 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,920 Speaker 1: Victoria as their president for the fifth time in a row. 510 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:03,440 Speaker 1: But even that connection to the Spiritualists wasn't enough to 511 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,440 Speaker 1: keep Victoria moored to the nation where she lived and 512 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,560 Speaker 1: fought for and had tried to change. It had chewed 513 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 1: her up, but it had also given her a platform 514 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 1: and a fortune, which she had won and lost. And 515 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: after all of that, one last mountain came her way 516 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 1: that needed to be overcome. Cornelius Vanderbilt was dead. His 517 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,520 Speaker 1: son had taken over, and he was determined that his 518 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: father's disgraceful connections would be out of the way. When 519 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,080 Speaker 1: it came time to settle Vanderbilt's will, according to one report, 520 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,080 Speaker 1: he came to Victoria and Tenny with one hundred thousand 521 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: dollars in hand. The money was theirs if they would disappear. 522 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,080 Speaker 1: With a brokerage firm, newspaper, and her political aspirations all 523 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 1: at an end. Victoria said goodbye to James Blood and 524 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,080 Speaker 1: the life they'd had together. Then she climbed aboard a 525 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,040 Speaker 1: steamer with her two children, along with Tenny and their mother, 526 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,640 Speaker 1: and then set off for England. In eighteen seventy five, 527 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: Cora Taypin gave a trance lecture on the topic of 528 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: spirit materializations. Heaven, she said, was coming to earth, and 529 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 1: the spirit who spoke through her was one of her 530 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,640 Speaker 1: oldest guides, Augustus Blew. He was still remembered as the 531 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 1: bright flower of the Hopedale community who had been cut 532 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: down in his youth. After Victoria's fall from grace, Augustus 533 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: came back to Cora. He wanted to encourage spiritualists that 534 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: the world they were working toward was just around the corner. 535 00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,760 Speaker 1: The marvelous new manifestations of power, he told them, were 536 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: an indication of a new golden age. They were sure 537 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,120 Speaker 1: signs that Heaven was coming to earth, that justice would 538 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: be done, and the power of that justice would be 539 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:42,240 Speaker 1: made manifest. But two years later, after Victoria had been 540 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,120 Speaker 1: toppled from her lofty perch and chased from the country, 541 00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:48,959 Speaker 1: the tone was different. Spiritualists were beginning to ask if 542 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,600 Speaker 1: the fight for the future might be lost, and when 543 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:55,160 Speaker 1: Cora and Samuel Tapin divorced in eighteen seventy six, it 544 00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: only added one more name to the list of disgraced mediums. 545 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:01,760 Speaker 1: After all, Samuel had been her third husband and the 546 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:05,640 Speaker 1: second she had divorced. But there were other problems on 547 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:09,399 Speaker 1: the horizon. It seems that Victoria's escaped to England wasn't 548 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: the only exit that mattered for the nation. In the South, 549 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: federal troops who had been part of reconstruction began to 550 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,120 Speaker 1: return north, and the newly elected president was already wheeling 551 00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:22,280 Speaker 1: and dealing with the Southern powers to keep political control 552 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: in white hands. Then, after waves of wage cuts hit 553 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:30,840 Speaker 1: railroad workers in eighteen seventy seven, the largest American labor 554 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,680 Speaker 1: uprising of the nineteenth century began. The U s Secretary 555 00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,879 Speaker 1: of War viewed the strikes as insurrection. In response, army 556 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: units in the South, including the troops that were guarding 557 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:46,000 Speaker 1: the Louisiana State House, were withdrawn. Everywhere that the railroad 558 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,680 Speaker 1: workers put down their tools and held up their fists, 559 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: Their neighbors showed up to help them. Craftsmen, shopkeepers, and 560 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:56,280 Speaker 1: farmers along the rail lines fed their families and cheered 561 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,879 Speaker 1: on their fights with the robber, barons and tycoons who 562 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,440 Speaker 1: were gobbling up so much of the American landscape and 563 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: the profits of enterprise. In Pittsburgh, miners and steel workers 564 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,520 Speaker 1: followed suit striking to show support for the rail workers 565 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,360 Speaker 1: who refused to make men like the Vanderbilts any richer. 566 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,680 Speaker 1: More amazingly, the militia often supported the striking workers they 567 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:20,120 Speaker 1: had been sent to aim their guns at, turning their 568 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: anger back on the tycoons instead. When the militia and 569 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,719 Speaker 1: hired guns did attack the striking workers, though, things spiraled 570 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:32,640 Speaker 1: out of control. When hired gunmen killed twenty strikers in Pittsburgh, 571 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 1: the rail yards were set on fire. Over one locomotives 572 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: and two thousand rail cars were torched. Strikes in Chicago 573 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,440 Speaker 1: and St. Louis only added fuel to the fire. And 574 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:45,799 Speaker 1: what did these angry workers want? Nothing more than an 575 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:48,520 Speaker 1: eight hour work day, an end to child labor, and 576 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,280 Speaker 1: for the government to take control of the railroads. Samuel 577 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,439 Speaker 1: Tapan's view of railroad monopolies was finally taking a hold 578 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:59,040 Speaker 1: among working people. The New York Tribune wrote that public 579 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 1: opinion is almost everywhere in sympathy with the insurrection. To 580 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,560 Speaker 1: fight that threat and to defend practices like child labor 581 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,759 Speaker 1: that made the railroad tycoons obscenely rich, the project to 582 00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:14,360 Speaker 1: defend black freedom in the South was abandoned. Other changes 583 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: came as well too. In the North, militias were disbanded. 584 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: In their place, cities began to recruit an armed police 585 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:25,160 Speaker 1: forces in greater number. They traded out unreliable citizen militias 586 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,840 Speaker 1: for well trained professionals, people who wouldn't blink at using 587 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,479 Speaker 1: force to put down a labor strike. From Europe, where 588 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:36,040 Speaker 1: he was resting after leaving office, former President Ulysses S. 589 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:39,080 Speaker 1: Grant wrote words that seemed to echo sojourn or truth. 590 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,000 Speaker 1: He wrote about how strange it was that officials who 591 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,120 Speaker 1: hated him for using the army to defend black Americans 592 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:49,040 Speaker 1: in the South now showed and I quote no hesitation 593 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,680 Speaker 1: about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress 594 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 1: a strike. It was hypocrisy, plain and simple, and a 595 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,480 Speaker 1: sign that there was one spirit more powerful and most 596 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:12,240 Speaker 1: in control of America, the spirit of greed. William Crooks 597 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:16,360 Speaker 1: satisfied none of Spiritualism's critics back in America. His defense 598 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:20,520 Speaker 1: of British sciences didn't even satisfy Spiritualists themselves. As far 599 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,280 Speaker 1: as believers were concerned, there was so much more work 600 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:27,200 Speaker 1: to be done, and that included Henry Seibert, a wealthy 601 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,480 Speaker 1: Philadelphia industrialist who knew just what he wanted to do 602 00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: with his money. You see, the police were professionalizing, so 603 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,720 Speaker 1: we're doctors who were now working to purge the public 604 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:40,480 Speaker 1: of counterfeit practitioners like the Canning Woodhalls and Buck Laughlands 605 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,919 Speaker 1: of the eighteen fifties. After so many tumultuous years, all 606 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:48,240 Speaker 1: kinds of groups were organizing themselves into stable societies with training, 607 00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:53,640 Speaker 1: guidelines and rules. Here's historian Molly McGarry. That was very 608 00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: much an impulse of the era, and historians have described 609 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:00,760 Speaker 1: that there as an age of corporation, incorporation, and when 610 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:05,359 Speaker 1: Americans become more likely to build institutions and to move 611 00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:09,000 Speaker 1: away from the kind of anti authoritarian communal impulses of 612 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:14,080 Speaker 1: the fervent of the Antebellum years. Henry Seybert had a 613 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,680 Speaker 1: vision of that impulse sweeping in to clean up the 614 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:20,560 Speaker 1: anarchy of spiritualism. He had actually been curious about spiritualism 615 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,040 Speaker 1: for years back when Robert Dale Owen published his Seances 616 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,160 Speaker 1: with Leah. Henry realized that someone needed to create a 617 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:31,000 Speaker 1: center for spiritualism in Philadelphia, a home base, if you will. 618 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 1: So he made an offer to a medium the city 619 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:37,239 Speaker 1: knew all too well, Maggie Fox, she should come down 620 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,719 Speaker 1: and live in his spiritual mansion. He said. Once there 621 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,360 Speaker 1: she would hold seances for him and his clients, and 622 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:46,400 Speaker 1: he promised that her salary would be generous, too, something 623 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: that made the deal hard to resist. It seemed like 624 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: the perfect retreat from the public seances she had been 625 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:56,600 Speaker 1: holding in New York City. So Maggie agreed she would 626 00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,520 Speaker 1: be the high priestess of his new temple. But she 627 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,839 Speaker 1: didn't day long. That's because his request quickly moved from 628 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,799 Speaker 1: the mundane to the downright awkward. You see, he had 629 00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,560 Speaker 1: been a spiritualist long enough to know that pious mediums 630 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:13,120 Speaker 1: could hold conversations with just about anyone, so he started 631 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,719 Speaker 1: to ask for others. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were 632 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: one thing, but Henry Cybert had his mindset on the eternal. 633 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:24,560 Speaker 1: Soon he was asking for conversations with every murtyr and 634 00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: saint in the Protestant calendar. And he didn't just want 635 00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:31,080 Speaker 1: American leaders either, but famous sages and rulers of the 636 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,919 Speaker 1: ancient world. He asked to talk to St. Paul about 637 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,120 Speaker 1: the way the Bible had been written. He even asked 638 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,759 Speaker 1: to talk with the old Testament prophet Elijah. When he 639 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,839 Speaker 1: insisted that he talked with the angel Gabriel, Maggie said 640 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,360 Speaker 1: it was too much. She was still a Catholic believer, 641 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,200 Speaker 1: after all. She wanted Cybert's money, sure, but not at 642 00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:52,040 Speaker 1: the cost of her soul. But if Maggie thought a 643 00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: retreat back to New York could give Cybert the slip, 644 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,520 Speaker 1: she was sorely mistaken. Neither did his death, because when 645 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:01,440 Speaker 1: his will was read in eighteen eight for the University 646 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:05,000 Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania found itself with two gifts of sixty dollars 647 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,080 Speaker 1: on their hands. The first went toward the University hospital, 648 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:12,040 Speaker 1: while the second, well, it had some conditions attached to it. 649 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,080 Speaker 1: I know, a large donation with strings attached sounds very 650 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:21,360 Speaker 1: very unusual. These strings insisted that the university appoints a 651 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,359 Speaker 1: new professor to investigate spiritualism. But if Cybert had an 652 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,440 Speaker 1: agenda for giving his money to establish the commission, the 653 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:31,359 Speaker 1: investigators on the commission had an agenda of their own. 654 00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:33,920 Speaker 1: It seems the chair of the Cybert Commission was a 655 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:37,719 Speaker 1: man who resented being told what to believe for cash publicly. 656 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,440 Speaker 1: He followed Cybert's instructions privately, though well Let's just say 657 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:46,520 Speaker 1: they didn't exactly apply the scientific method, and that became 658 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,440 Speaker 1: only too obvious when the Commission decided to investigate a 659 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:52,400 Speaker 1: series of mediums who had already been exposed as frauds. 660 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 1: In his private letters, the chair of the Commission didn't 661 00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,400 Speaker 1: bother to pretend. He wrote that he was a viper 662 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: warmed by the spiritual nonsense. He said that he wanted 663 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:06,040 Speaker 1: to use the Cybert Commission to poison spiritualism's lifeblood and 664 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:09,920 Speaker 1: then strike it dead. Sometime during the first year of 665 00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,840 Speaker 1: the Commission, he decided just where to sink his fings. 666 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,440 Speaker 1: In November eight eighty three, he invited Maggie Fox to 667 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:19,880 Speaker 1: travel back to Philadelphia once more. She agreed to have 668 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,400 Speaker 1: her spirit rapping tested by a committee. The things didn't 669 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: quite turn out as planned. That's because Maggie came with 670 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: her own agenda. Her opinion of Cybert had soured over 671 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:32,839 Speaker 1: the years, and she'd had enough of trying to prove 672 00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:36,440 Speaker 1: herself to others. Now her only goal was to confound 673 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,240 Speaker 1: the Commission. She arrived at the chairman's house and settled 674 00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,320 Speaker 1: in for the investigation in his dining room. The Cybert 675 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,200 Speaker 1: Commission began with a few tests that produced the knocking 676 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,839 Speaker 1: sounds they all expected. But then Maggie suggested a test 677 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,759 Speaker 1: she had never passed before. She should stand on glass tumblers, 678 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,440 Speaker 1: she said, and then produce the raps on the floor. 679 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,279 Speaker 1: When they lined up four glass tumblers for her to use, 680 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,600 Speaker 1: Maggie climbed on board. She stood there holding the hands 681 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,120 Speaker 1: of two of the men, but were met with only silence. 682 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,960 Speaker 1: The men moved the glasses and try it again, but failed. 683 00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:14,800 Speaker 1: Just as before, the Commission published their report to little fanfare. 684 00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,120 Speaker 1: The problems with their methods were obvious, but they weren't 685 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:22,239 Speaker 1: the only prestigious investigators taking on mediums that decade. In fact, 686 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: the British Society of Psychical Research, which took on not 687 00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:30,440 Speaker 1: just spiritualism but also claims of telepathy, uncanny dreams, and hauntings, 688 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:35,160 Speaker 1: had also spread to the United States. Here's historian Kathy Gutierrez. 689 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:43,280 Speaker 1: So there's an American offshoot that begins, and William James 690 00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:49,640 Speaker 1: is its most famous investigator believer. And James does not 691 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:55,600 Speaker 1: buy into spiritualism wholesale at all, but he does think 692 00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,600 Speaker 1: that the unconscious can communicate with spirits greater than they 693 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,800 Speaker 1: and he finds this one woman who he secks this 694 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,560 Speaker 1: detective on for years, and she's just infallible, and so 695 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:11,640 Speaker 1: he thinks it's possible. But he also concedes that there's 696 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,520 Speaker 1: a lot of chicken ring going on. But he's this 697 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:19,280 Speaker 1: amazing name and his dad was the Swedenborgian mystic, so 698 00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:23,080 Speaker 1: they clearly come from this very religious family. But yeah, 699 00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:26,960 Speaker 1: so he gives a real intellectual impromoter to the entire 700 00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:32,239 Speaker 1: spiritualist cause. In fact, William James was one of the 701 00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:35,120 Speaker 1: observers who took the Cyber Commission to task for its 702 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:38,840 Speaker 1: mishandling of their obligation to study spiritualism with a serious 703 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,879 Speaker 1: objective attitude. But there was something else. When the chair 704 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,200 Speaker 1: of the Commission had faced off with Maggie, he had 705 00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:48,320 Speaker 1: asked her whether she claimed the knocking sounds were independent 706 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,800 Speaker 1: of herself. She said she never made that claim. He 707 00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,800 Speaker 1: asked her how she influenced the sounds that had followed 708 00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:58,880 Speaker 1: her throughout her adult life. Her only answer was, I 709 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:10,480 Speaker 1: cannot tell, but that it turns out it wasn't quite true. 710 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:13,800 Speaker 1: They had birthed the religion at the edge of science. 711 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:17,960 Speaker 1: They had crafted their beliefs from communal impulses. They had 712 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:23,360 Speaker 1: given rise to a kaleidoscope of ideas, beliefs, newspapers, communities, 713 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:26,160 Speaker 1: and visions of the world, and as the end of 714 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,359 Speaker 1: the century drew near, the mediums were finally professionalizing too. 715 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,480 Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty three, Andrew Jackson Davis graduated from the 716 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,680 Speaker 1: United States Medical College with his m d. He would 717 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:42,040 Speaker 1: go on healing visitors, now with the proper credentials to 718 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,520 Speaker 1: justify himself to others. At least that was the hope, 719 00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:48,640 Speaker 1: but rather than give his reputation to boost, he ended 720 00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:52,520 Speaker 1: up making it worse. Just two years later, he announced 721 00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:54,680 Speaker 1: to his wife Mary that he had been wrong all 722 00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:58,520 Speaker 1: these years. She was not, in fact his spirits affinity. 723 00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:01,560 Speaker 1: He had eyes on a clas mate from his medical school, 724 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,960 Speaker 1: fifteen years younger than Mary. They would have confirmed all 725 00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:08,920 Speaker 1: the worst estimations that any outsider had about spiritualists and 726 00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:12,520 Speaker 1: free love. But it even took his own people by surprise. 727 00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:18,640 Speaker 1: Here's historian and browdie spiritualists were shocked by this, and 728 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:23,440 Speaker 1: it really it was very detrimental to Andrew Jackson Davis's 729 00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:26,719 Speaker 1: standing in the community. And it gives you some of 730 00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:31,680 Speaker 1: the irony of these ideas that sexual liberation in the 731 00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:37,200 Speaker 1: nineteenth century was a much more complicated idea, given the 732 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:43,520 Speaker 1: legal climate regarding divorce, regarding child custody, and the lack 733 00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: of birth control. It was not what we think of 734 00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:51,040 Speaker 1: as the sexual freedoms of the nineteen sixties and seventies. 735 00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:55,920 Speaker 1: Now sixty years old, the Seer of Poughkeepsie had witnessed 736 00:45:55,920 --> 00:46:00,080 Speaker 1: decades of Spiritualism. He'd watched the movement rise blossom a 737 00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:05,000 Speaker 1: thousand different colors, and also weather the storms of accusation, opposition, 738 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,440 Speaker 1: and in fighting. But now it seemed too many that 739 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,200 Speaker 1: he had abandoned it, just as he had his wife, 740 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,000 Speaker 1: and sure he would continue to practice medicine and sell 741 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:18,360 Speaker 1: books into his twilight years. He had always wanted others 742 00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:20,160 Speaker 1: to believe that he was a man of peace and 743 00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:23,439 Speaker 1: vision after all, but the sour cord he struck after 744 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:29,320 Speaker 1: medical school disrupted the legacy of his harmonial philosophy. Unfortunately 745 00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:34,719 Speaker 1: for Spiritualism, he wouldn't be the only one. By eighty eight, 746 00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:38,400 Speaker 1: Kate and Maggie had switched places. Kate's marriage brought her 747 00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,480 Speaker 1: two children and ten years of happiness, but when Henry 748 00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:44,480 Speaker 1: Yenkin died in eighteen eighty one, he left her with 749 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:50,000 Speaker 1: little to go on. Here's author Nancy Stewart. She's still drinking, 750 00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:53,560 Speaker 1: but it's not terrible, and they seemed to be happy. 751 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:59,200 Speaker 1: And then suddenly he dies, and then she discovers that 752 00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:04,359 Speaker 1: his lego his money. He's originally from Germany. I mean 753 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:06,160 Speaker 1: it has to go back there. She's not going to 754 00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:11,000 Speaker 1: get me money for it. Despite her time in the limelight, 755 00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,319 Speaker 1: it had really been Henry who had been her home 756 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:16,400 Speaker 1: in Britain. His death sent her back to New York City, 757 00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:20,280 Speaker 1: back to the tailor's and the Swedish movement cure. Here's 758 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:24,760 Speaker 1: Nancy Stewart once again. Katie has come back with these children, 759 00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:27,440 Speaker 1: and she's drinking again, and the children neglected, or at 760 00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:31,120 Speaker 1: least they're seized by the authorities, and she's accused of 761 00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,000 Speaker 1: being a mother. And Maggie Nemo has gone to England 762 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:38,440 Speaker 1: and is doing seances there and she is extremely upset 763 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:43,680 Speaker 1: about Katie, and she decides that she is got to confess. 764 00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:49,279 Speaker 1: She started with announcements in the newspaper. Word began to 765 00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,480 Speaker 1: spread that in the wisdom of her maturity, Maggie Fox, 766 00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,000 Speaker 1: the woman who had given spiritualism to the world, was 767 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:59,880 Speaker 1: about to take it back again. And New York eagerly 768 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:03,799 Speaker 1: awaited her arrival. On October twenty one, at the New 769 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,560 Speaker 1: York Academy of Music, she took the stage before an 770 00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:10,240 Speaker 1: audience of over three thousand people. She had helped start 771 00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 1: a movement that had given so many people a feeling 772 00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,920 Speaker 1: of purpose and hope. It had given them life. But 773 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,520 Speaker 1: her message that night from the stage in New York 774 00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:23,120 Speaker 1: would be different this time because her next words would 775 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:29,960 Speaker 1: deliver spiritualism a fatal blow. That's it for this week's 776 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:34,360 Speaker 1: episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor break 777 00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:37,360 Speaker 1: for a preview of what's in store for next week. 778 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:48,120 Speaker 1: Next time on Unobscured, Spiritualism had always threatened the priest, politicians, 779 00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,839 Speaker 1: and profiteers who benefited from the status quo. It had 780 00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,520 Speaker 1: given spiritual and moral authority to people who had been 781 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,840 Speaker 1: stripped of their rights, pushed to the margins, and burdened 782 00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:01,880 Speaker 1: with work while others reaped the rewards. The last thing 783 00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:05,560 Speaker 1: spiritualists wanted to do, even in the nineties, was to 784 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,240 Speaker 1: give up on their labors and return to a world 785 00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,480 Speaker 1: of the strong crushing the week. But in the coming decades, 786 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:15,120 Speaker 1: Cora and the Chicago Spiritualists weren't the only ones who 787 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:19,800 Speaker 1: saw a spiritualist future finally taking shape. It just wasn't 788 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:41,080 Speaker 1: the future they'd expected. Loun Obscured was created by me, 789 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,640 Speaker 1: Aaron Manky and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and 790 00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:48,440 Speaker 1: Josh Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio. Research and 791 00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:50,600 Speaker 1: writing for this season is all the work of my 792 00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:53,720 Speaker 1: right hand man Carl Nellis and the brilliant Chad Lawson 793 00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:58,279 Speaker 1: composed the brand new soundtrack. Learn more about our contributing historians, 794 00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:01,520 Speaker 1: source material and links to our other shows over at 795 00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:06,520 Speaker 1: history unobscured dot com, and until next time, thanks for 796 00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:16,360 Speaker 1: listening Unobscured as a production of I Heart Radio and 797 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,919 Speaker 1: Aaron Minkey. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit 798 00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,439 Speaker 1: I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 799 00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:22,360 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.