1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcomed Unobscured, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: Colonel Crosby died on April second of eighteen sixty. He 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: had been one of the first to march out from 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: Philadelphia with the volunteers at the start of the war. 5 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: He took fire throughout the fighting, and at one point 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 1: was shot in the head. After he went back into combat, 7 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: a bullet shattered his arm, which was then amputated in 8 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:32,240 Speaker 1: a war hospital. Still, he was promoted through the ranks 9 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:36,280 Speaker 1: as his fearlessness made him a strange figure on the battlefield. 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: Crosby got to know one of the doctors who treated him, 11 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,559 Speaker 1: and they started writing letters to each other. His willingness 12 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 1: to face fire after such dire injuries must have puzzled 13 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,519 Speaker 1: the doctor as much as it impressed his fellow soldiers. 14 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 1: Crosby explained his daring. You see, he was a spiritualist. 15 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: Every time he stepped onto the battlefield, he said, he 16 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: felt the presence of his spirit friends all around him. 17 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: Their guidance was so real that he lost all awareness 18 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: of fear. In his own words, the whizzing of musket 19 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: balls produced no more trepidation than the falling rain and 20 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: Crosby wasn't the only soldier to say so. Other spiritualists 21 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: in the Union Army claimed that spirits had led them 22 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: through tremendous fire as well. If his faith was shaken 23 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: by the wounds that shattered him, he didn't let on 24 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: when he died. The Doctors published a note on Colonel 25 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: Crosby's life in the Banner of Light. It was a 26 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: testament to spiritualists that the dead leaders who met them 27 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: at the seance table also steered them through the battlefield. 28 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: Like Crosby, they had led the nation to the end 29 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: of the war, covered in scars, yes, but still fighting 30 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: to the last. He died in the final confrontations of 31 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:54,640 Speaker 1: the war that forced the surrender at Appomattox. Perhaps he 32 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 1: shared the same feeling that Lincoln expressed to one of 33 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: Nettie Colburn's dire yet vague warnings about his own coming death. 34 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 1: In her memoir, Nettie wrote that the President told her, 35 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: I shall live till my work is done, and no 36 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: earthly power can prevent it, and then it doesn't matter. 37 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: But it didn't matter. It mattered to the spiritualists. When 38 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: news of Lincoln's assassination reached New York, the community railed 39 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: in shared grief. They asked Emma Harding to give a 40 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: lecture at the Cooper Institute and address their shocked hearts, 41 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: and spiritualists across the country met in their local groups 42 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: to grieve their loss, although maybe they grieved less than 43 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: others who didn't share their beliefs about life in the 44 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: spirit land. While most members of the New Republican Party 45 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: mourned Lincoln's death, the Republicans of the Sirk Harmonique in 46 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: New Orleans didn't feel the pain of his loss so deeply. 47 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: In fact, he was closer to their fellowship than he'd 48 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,800 Speaker 1: ever been before. At the end of that year, when 49 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: President Andrew Johnson declared a national Day of Thanksgiving, the 50 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,919 Speaker 1: er Harmonique hell the seance. They've been meeting again for 51 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: a year ever since. On re resigned his commission, but 52 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: he wasn't just holding seances. He was also holding office. 53 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty five, On rehelped create the Friends of 54 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 1: Universal Suffrage. Their political vision was filled with the fire 55 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: of the idea universal education, black male suffrage, and distribution 56 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: of land by the states to the heads of families. 57 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: So when Lincoln spirit appeared to the Sir Carmonique. Of course, 58 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: he gave their political vision his blessing. Here's historian Emily Clark. 59 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln's first appearance to the Sir Carmenique is on 60 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: December seven, sixty five, about seven months after his assassination. 61 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 1: His spirit noted how he was glad that they had 62 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: broken the chains of slavery, but he also recognized that 63 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: there was a lot of work still to be done. Um. 64 00:03:57,520 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: You know, we shouldn't start patting ourselves on the back, 65 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: Justine at He also talks about how those who tried 66 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,200 Speaker 1: to stop the progress of freedom would regret those decisions 67 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: after death, where you know, those who had suffered for 68 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: righteous causes would be blessed by God and happy in 69 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:19,719 Speaker 1: the spirit world. You know, freedom was something that was 70 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: created and ordained by God, and while freedom originated in heaven. 71 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 1: His spirit talks about how it's intended to reign on 72 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 1: earth to um and then he signs off the message 73 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: like he does many of them. With your brother and friend, 74 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln. The work of making sure that a nation 75 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,040 Speaker 1: conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all 76 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: men and women are created equal would endure the blood 77 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,120 Speaker 1: spent to perfect the nation would not be wasted, The 78 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: unfinished work of freedom would advance further than ever, the 79 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: new birth of liberty would grow to maturity. It was 80 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: an assurance that the Sir Carmonique would need to help 81 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,239 Speaker 1: them reshape the nation in the mold of the idea, 82 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: and it was the fuel they needed to empower the 83 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:40,840 Speaker 1: next step forward reconstruction. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Mankey. 84 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: Lincoln was dead, and yet he was everywhere. In fact, 85 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln visited far more seances after his death than 86 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: he ever could have in life. He was, after all, 87 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: the representative of justice and liberty to many, but he 88 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: was also a man with a family, and could anyone 89 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 1: have been more devastated by his loss than Mary Todd Lincoln. 90 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: Here's historian John Busher. I looked in detail at the 91 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: last moments of Lincoln's life before he passed away and 92 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:33,119 Speaker 1: the following moments, and discovered descriptions of the physicians being 93 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: asked by Mary Todd Lincoln too cut her a lock 94 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: of hair from Lincoln's head. Mary didn't keep the hair, 95 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: though she passed it on. She hadn't taken it for herself, 96 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:49,480 Speaker 1: but rather so that she could give it to her 97 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 1: spiritualist friends Cranston, Laurie's wife and daughter. They must have 98 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,119 Speaker 1: told Mary that they could use it to hold open 99 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,000 Speaker 1: a channel to Old Abe. With the lock of his hair, 100 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: they could reach across the border to the spirit world, 101 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,159 Speaker 1: just as they had done for Mary after she lost 102 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: Willie in eighteen sixty two. Even more, the lock of 103 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: hair that they got was gruesome. Today. It's kept safe 104 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: by the Chicago Historical Society with a label that reads 105 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 1: taken from President Lincoln's head after he was shot, cut 106 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: from the spot where the ball passed through Washington, d c. 107 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:29,320 Speaker 1: April eighteen sixty five. You can find the Historical Society's 108 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: image online too, clearly showing the hair still clotted with blood. 109 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: But for many spiritualists this would mean that it's still 110 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,600 Speaker 1: was charged with the mental energy that left Lincoln's body 111 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:44,160 Speaker 1: on his death. Like so many of the mysteries of spiritualism, 112 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: Lincoln's murder was immediately put under the scrutiny of investigation. 113 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: A new unit of intelligence agents was responsible for solving 114 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: the case. The Secret Service, formed from Alan Pinkerton's National 115 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: Detective Agency. They had served as spies for the Union 116 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 1: Army during the Civil War, and surprise surprise, Pinkerton's home 117 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: had served as a stop on the underground railroad in 118 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: Illinois through the eighteen fifties. Born in a Scottish slum, 119 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,520 Speaker 1: Pinkerton had abandoned his efforts to reform Britain and started 120 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: over in America. After he established his detective agency, he 121 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 1: set them to work in the service of helping people 122 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: escaped slavery, but he assisted powerful interest too, including the 123 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: Illinois Central Railroad, and that work put him in touch 124 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: with the railroad's attorney, a man named Abraham Lincoln. So 125 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:37,920 Speaker 1: when Pinkerton was brought into the war, he started by 126 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:41,079 Speaker 1: foiling an early attempt on the President's life in eighteen 127 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: sixty one. Now, though he had a new and more 128 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:49,560 Speaker 1: sobering task, tips and evidence began flooding his office, so 129 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,600 Speaker 1: he recruited an investigator with a talent for sorting through 130 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:55,839 Speaker 1: mountains of paper. This man began his career as a 131 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: journalist for the New York Tribune and was the very 132 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: same reporter who'd knocked south against Virginia's embargo to report 133 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:06,280 Speaker 1: on the hanging of John Brown. His name was Henry 134 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: Steele Allcott, It seems that after his turn as an 135 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: undercover reporter, Alcott had enlisted in the signal core of 136 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: the Union Army. When illness sent him home from the front, 137 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:20,200 Speaker 1: he ended up sitting behind a desk, tracking the profiteers 138 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: who were siphoning money away from the war effort. Now 139 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: he was facing the task of sifting through the confessions 140 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:30,600 Speaker 1: and leads regarding Lincoln's murder. He would only be a 141 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: part of the investigation for a short time and returned 142 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 1: to New York soon afterward, but he wasn't done investigating frauds. 143 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: His keen eye for detail might have made him the 144 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,959 Speaker 1: right man to follow a paper trail for the Secret Service, 145 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,280 Speaker 1: but he was also a veteran mesmerist from his younger days. 146 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: It was a skill that made him the perfect candidate 147 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: for a job in the eighteen seventies when a newspaper 148 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: sent him north to investigate something unusual, and it would 149 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: be a case that would draw him back into the 150 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: world of the occult. A story will pick up again 151 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: later as Alcott and the Pinkerton's investigated Lincoln's murder. There 152 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,720 Speaker 1: were bodyguards assigned to stay with Mary Lincoln in the 153 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: midst of her raw suffering. One of those bodyguards later 154 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: wrote women spiritualists in some way gained access to her 155 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 1: and poured into her ear pretend messages from her dead husband. 156 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,520 Speaker 1: But now she was so weakened, he said that she 157 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:28,440 Speaker 1: wasn't able to resist the cruel cheat. The sittings nearly 158 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: drove her mad. At least that was her son Robert's opinion. 159 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,040 Speaker 1: He threw the spiritualists out of the house. He hated 160 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: their beliefs with a passion, and must have always been 161 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:40,959 Speaker 1: disgusted by his mother's attempts to talk to his dead brothers. 162 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:43,680 Speaker 1: In the following days, he went so far as to 163 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:47,839 Speaker 1: have his grieving mother committed to an insane asylum. Of course, 164 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,240 Speaker 1: Mary wasn't the only one to carry on speaking with 165 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: the spirit of Lincoln after he died, But then again, 166 00:10:55,440 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: she wasn't the only one grieving either. She kept a 167 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: shrine in her closet. Maggie's period of hopeless morning, alongside 168 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,440 Speaker 1: her descent into desperate poverty, had started before the war 169 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,040 Speaker 1: with Elisha Kine's death. The chaos of the Civil War 170 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: had done nothing to lift her spirits either. Every day 171 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: she would step into her closet and pull back a 172 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:29,079 Speaker 1: set of black drapes. There sat an engraving of Elisha's face, 173 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:33,320 Speaker 1: surrounded by his gifts to her, the jewels, the handkerchiefs, 174 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: the letters, even a map that showed his route of 175 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: his journey north. But despite her work as a medium, 176 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: Maggie had no map or chart that traced his journey 177 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: into death. So she would light a candle in his 178 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,360 Speaker 1: memory and weep for him as long as she could 179 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:52,560 Speaker 1: stand it. When she couldn't stand it anymore, she would 180 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:56,240 Speaker 1: drink Brandy was Maggie's companion during the dark years of 181 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: the Civil War. As her long legal battles with Elisha's 182 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: relative have stretched on. They never relented either. The Canes 183 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,280 Speaker 1: never acknowledged his relationship with her, let alone that she 184 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,280 Speaker 1: was his wife. But in the midst of her grief, 185 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,240 Speaker 1: Maggie did make friends who were willing to find her help. 186 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: They initiated a lawsuit against the Canes, arguing that Maggie 187 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 1: was entitled to at least half of a licious estate. 188 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: It didn't bring any kind of a swift resolution, though, 189 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,640 Speaker 1: and it added another layer to the quarrel that had 190 00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:31,040 Speaker 1: already dragged on for years. Here's author Nancy Stewart. Now 191 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:35,200 Speaker 1: the lawsuit takes place in yes where Philadelphia, of course, 192 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:38,760 Speaker 1: where he's from, and his father had been a district 193 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:44,000 Speaker 1: court judge. And the family keeps making these bargains as 194 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: they don't want anyone to know he was married to, 195 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,760 Speaker 1: quotes the Rapper. Then they'll provide for her for a 196 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,679 Speaker 1: nuity out of this five thousand dollars and as a 197 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: struggle that goes on for a long long time. In 198 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: her boldest gambit, Maggie worked with an author to write 199 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 1: a book that told the story of her relationship with Elisha, 200 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,600 Speaker 1: including one hundred and thirty four of their letters. When 201 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,960 Speaker 1: the manuscript was sent to the printer, Elisha's brother suddenly 202 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 1: appeared and offered to pay her off with two thousand dollars, 203 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,599 Speaker 1: as well as smaller quarterly payments drawn from the mysterious 204 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: trust that Elisha had established. When Maggie agreed, she received 205 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:27,440 Speaker 1: the first quarterly payment, but the rest never came. During 206 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 1: the war, Kate was the only medium of the three 207 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,560 Speaker 1: Fox sisters who was still holding public seances, Maggie was 208 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:37,000 Speaker 1: submerged in her personal battles, and Leah was floating above 209 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: the fray in her newcastle. So as Maggie descended further 210 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: into the darkness of alcoholism, Kate extended her earnings to 211 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: her sister and supported both of them. But it wasn't 212 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:54,240 Speaker 1: just Maggie who was drinking. Here's more from Nancy Stewart. Maggie, 213 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:58,199 Speaker 1: in midst her breakdowns and so on, after Elisha's death, 214 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 1: finally actually becomes a Catholic, which is interesting. She does 215 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:06,800 Speaker 1: drinking more and more, and by the way, her sister 216 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: has become quite a famous and now beautiful, lovely young 217 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 1: woman also is drinking. The two of them are drinking, 218 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: and there are various efforts to put them on the wagon, 219 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: so to speak. Maggie's case eventually went back to the courts. 220 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: When Confederate forces were nearing the Canes estates outside Philadelphia 221 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: just before the Battle of Gettysburg, he gave the Canes 222 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,200 Speaker 1: more excuses to avoid court dates and payments. Elisha had 223 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,960 Speaker 1: been dead for seven years at that point, and yet 224 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: she continued to fight and to drink as well. One 225 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,520 Speaker 1: night in December of eighteen sixty four, the sister's old friend, 226 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: Horace Greeley, who long advocated temperance in his newspapers, found 227 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,960 Speaker 1: Maggie wandering drunkenly in the snowy New York street. A 228 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:57,680 Speaker 1: biography published in the nineteen forties recorded that when Horace 229 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: asked her what she was doing, she replied, I'm looking 230 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 1: for Elisha. He is somewhere in this awful storm. I 231 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: always find him in the snow. When he led her home, 232 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:12,800 Speaker 1: Horace found that Kate was also wrapped in an alcohol addiction. 233 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 1: He put his head together with Leah and the rest 234 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: of their family, and they decided to pay for the 235 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:20,520 Speaker 1: sisters to begin a course at a small hospital nearby 236 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:24,720 Speaker 1: called the Swedish Movement Cure Hospital. The founders there practiced 237 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: one of the many new attempts at medical treatment that 238 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:32,040 Speaker 1: had sprung up alongside magnetic healing. Here's Nancy Stewarts once again. 239 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 1: Now the Swedish Movement. It was one of those many 240 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: And there were many health reform movements going on at 241 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,920 Speaker 1: that point of the beginning of the sanitarium movements, or 242 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: at least the acceleration of them, and water cures and 243 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,440 Speaker 1: diet cures were very popular in the mid nine century. 244 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: But anyway, yes, so the Swedish Movement Cure was run 245 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: by this doctor George Taylor and his wife Sarah in 246 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: New York City end they care for Katie and they 247 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: try to keep her sober. The tailor's work focused on 248 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:11,200 Speaker 1: a combination of massage and other techniques for releasing nervous 249 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: tension in the body. But even as they worked on Kate, 250 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,360 Speaker 1: she worked on them as well. Soon they were calling 251 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: her powers of mediumship extraordinary. While Kate was sitting for 252 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: their cures, they were sitting for her seances, still clinging 253 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: to her dark path. Though Maggie refused both, She was 254 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: single minded in her fight with the Canes. That is 255 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: until the summer of eighteen sixty five, when her case 256 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:41,000 Speaker 1: was finally decided. The Philadelphia court, where Elisha's family was 257 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,160 Speaker 1: deeply involved, came down on the side of the Canes 258 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: by throwing out the case altogether. It was the last 259 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,960 Speaker 1: thing Maggie and her family needed to hear. In January 260 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: of that year, the Fox sisters had lost their father, 261 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:56,640 Speaker 1: then in August their mother had passed away. As you 262 00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: might imagine, it was difficult for Maggie to find light 263 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,800 Speaker 1: in those dark times, but she did brighten a bit 264 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: when her book finally reached Prince. At least now people 265 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: could read The Love Life of Dr Kane and know 266 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:14,240 Speaker 1: her side of the story. Leah and Daniel Underhill even 267 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,239 Speaker 1: decided to fund an apartment for their sisters just a 268 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,240 Speaker 1: few blocks away from the Movement Cure Hospital so that 269 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: Kate and Maggie could stay together, and it seemed that 270 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,520 Speaker 1: maybe things were starting to look up. But when Leah 271 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,720 Speaker 1: visited her sisters one morning that summer, she found them 272 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,720 Speaker 1: in the midst of a disastrous relapse. Not only had 273 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: Maggie resumed holding seances with Kate, finally throwing aside the 274 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: religious obedience that had restrained her for so long, but 275 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:45,440 Speaker 1: the pair were also consumed with the destructive spirit of Brandy. 276 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:50,200 Speaker 1: Leah exploded in anger at her sisters. The resulting fight 277 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: one where disappointments and resentments were laid bare permanently severed. 278 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: The bond between Leah and Maggie and Kate didn't fare 279 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,400 Speaker 1: any better either. Her journey from recovery at the hospital 280 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,560 Speaker 1: to relapse with Maggie, and then back to the hospital 281 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:10,159 Speaker 1: again would play on repeat for years to come. But 282 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: there was something familiar about their struggles. While the Fox 283 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,440 Speaker 1: family wrestled with their own demons and failures, an entire 284 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,719 Speaker 1: nation was doing the same, and all of them seemed 285 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:25,920 Speaker 1: to be focused on the same three things, promises, betrayal, 286 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: and reconciliation. The nation had been reunited, but it was 287 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:44,200 Speaker 1: hardly unified. For some, spirit of liberation, like the figure 288 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: of Lincoln was what they needed to lift their downcast eyes. 289 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: For others, the loss was far more personal and raw. 290 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:56,359 Speaker 1: They grieved dead sons, nephews, brothers, fathers, and friends. The 291 00:18:56,359 --> 00:19:00,680 Speaker 1: war had left many wounds, both the personal and the political. 292 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,200 Speaker 1: As it was before the war, the social obligation to 293 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: mourn publicly seemed to fall on white, middle class women. 294 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:12,359 Speaker 1: There were expectations about how a grieving woman with some 295 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: social clout and some money to her name should act. 296 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: At the same time, the whole idea of what a 297 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:23,359 Speaker 1: woman's sphere ought to be was continually changing. Thousands of families, 298 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,400 Speaker 1: but especially women, were looking for some kind of guidance 299 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: to bring peace to their hearts, and many found that 300 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: in spiritualism. So it was only natural that when the 301 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,040 Speaker 1: scale of death became unbelievable, it became more and more 302 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,520 Speaker 1: possible to see a life beyond death as a reality. 303 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:43,359 Speaker 1: Too many, the spiritualist slogan there is no Death was 304 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 1: a welcome relief. One writer in eighteen sixty seven noted 305 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,879 Speaker 1: with surprise that rather than shattering spiritualism and its optimism 306 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 1: for a better world, the number of spiritualists was growing 307 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,360 Speaker 1: with each passing day. He wrote, Mothers are losing their 308 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: children by death. Fond fathers unwillingly give up their only 309 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,840 Speaker 1: son of their name to the grave. Each day, how 310 00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,639 Speaker 1: many die, some of whom are long and some of 311 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:13,720 Speaker 1: whom are bitterly mourned by the survivors, mourned with blind 312 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: longing and passionate pain. And this being so, it is 313 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,840 Speaker 1: vain to look for a speedy ending to a belief 314 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:24,520 Speaker 1: that offers the living one more opportunity to speak with 315 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: the beloved dead. In fact, the desire was so strong 316 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,520 Speaker 1: that the spiritualist newspapers started publishing a new kind of advertisement. 317 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,680 Speaker 1: In the years before the war, their pages were full 318 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:40,040 Speaker 1: of notices from mediums offering their services to anyone who 319 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:43,159 Speaker 1: wanted them. In the years after the war, though, we 320 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: started to see the reverse letters from grieving families who 321 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:52,360 Speaker 1: wanted help contacting those they've lost. Here's historian Molly McGarry 322 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 1: the spiritualist press. I think that the Schekna is one 323 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: of the first spirituals public patients to include pages of 324 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:06,800 Speaker 1: letters from readers to the editor man in Samuel Britten 325 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:11,919 Speaker 1: asking for comfort, asking for consolation, and sometimes asking for 326 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:16,720 Speaker 1: assistance in contacting dead loved ones. So their letters of mourning, 327 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,199 Speaker 1: their letters of loss, and there's sometimes letters asking for 328 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 1: help and making his connections. For mediums like Victoria Woodhall, 329 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,360 Speaker 1: who had established themselves as spiritual healers, relieving the pain 330 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: of wounds opened by massive violence was business and a 331 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:36,120 Speaker 1: lucrative one. When Victoria returned from San Francisco to Ohio 332 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: in the years before the war and reunited with her 333 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,679 Speaker 1: sister and mother, she was also pulled back into the 334 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 1: surreal world of perpetual cons and frauds that her father, 335 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:49,560 Speaker 1: Buck Claflin, built around his family. She and her sister 336 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,879 Speaker 1: Tenny were selling their services as mediums for the cure 337 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: of disease, but as far as Victoria could see, there 338 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,439 Speaker 1: was a big difference between her approach and what her 339 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 1: father wanted. She laid of wrote, I believe that Tenny 340 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,439 Speaker 1: ought to use the gift God has given her, but 341 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,480 Speaker 1: not in the mercenary way. She was forced to use it, 342 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,920 Speaker 1: and it's easy to understand what she meant. Mary Gabriel 343 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,159 Speaker 1: writes that Claflin crew picked the bones of the border 344 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 1: states after waves of violence from the war. They sold 345 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: hope to the hopeless so often that even though Victoria 346 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,160 Speaker 1: had come back from the West to be with them, 347 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,440 Speaker 1: she couldn't always stand to be around them for long, 348 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,360 Speaker 1: which is why Victoria wasn't with her family for one 349 00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:33,600 Speaker 1: of their most egregious crimes. That was when Buck arrived 350 00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: in Ottawa, Illinois, not far from where I grew up 351 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: in fact, and announced himself as Dr. RB Claflin, King 352 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 1: of Cancers. He rented out the entire Fox River House, 353 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:50,639 Speaker 1: the town's oldest hotel, to establish an infirmary there. Buck 354 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,199 Speaker 1: and Tenny dosed patients with their classic life elixir, just 355 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:57,119 Speaker 1: as they've done before, but of course it did nothing 356 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:00,719 Speaker 1: for their dying victims. In fact, the mixture of sheep's fats, 357 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:06,640 Speaker 1: lie and perfumes actually deepened their suffering. Once, when Victoria 358 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,080 Speaker 1: came to visit her family, she heard the screams of 359 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:12,720 Speaker 1: a patient and examine their wounds under the bedclothes. She 360 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 1: saw ragged flesh dissolved away from limbs covered in blood 361 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: and puss. They were essentially being chemically melted by Buck's poisons. 362 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: When Victoria confronted him about what he was doing, he said, 363 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,600 Speaker 1: there are only three cures for cancer. Cut it out, 364 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,119 Speaker 1: poison it with arsenic or burn it out, and I 365 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 1: burn it. Despite the horrors of the life elixir that 366 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,679 Speaker 1: Bucks sold in her name, stories of Tenny's ability to 367 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: diagnose wounds, cure illnesses, and even relay the details of 368 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,280 Speaker 1: how they occurred continued to be spread by local newspapers. 369 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: As Ever, the claim was that the spirits poured their 370 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:55,440 Speaker 1: power through the young woman. Bucks advertisements made it clear 371 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,160 Speaker 1: that Tenny was the only one who administered the elixir, 372 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: which is why when their patient died in June of 373 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four, word reached the Claflands that it was 374 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: Tenny who would face charges for manslaughter. It wasn't the 375 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:10,560 Speaker 1: first time the law came down on Buck, and he 376 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:12,840 Speaker 1: knew how to slip away from the consequences of a 377 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: serious crime. Before the authorities could arrive, he bundled the 378 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,960 Speaker 1: family back onto the road and fled towards the horizon. 379 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,399 Speaker 1: They were headed east towards Cincinnati, but Victoria was about 380 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,119 Speaker 1: to face her own challenges to the west. In the 381 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: city of St. Louis. In fact, her life was about 382 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:46,600 Speaker 1: to change forever. Whatever power was inside Victoria, it could 383 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,600 Speaker 1: defeat death. She had seen it save her own son. 384 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: As she told the story, there was a day when 385 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,919 Speaker 1: Victoria had left her son, Byron, with his father, but 386 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,640 Speaker 1: when she came home, she found that Canning had vanished 387 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:01,960 Speaker 1: from the house. In his place, she found her mother there, 388 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: deeply upset. She told Victoria that Byron had suffered a sudden, 389 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: intense fever. It had burned the boy up from the 390 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,560 Speaker 1: inside and killed him two hours before Victoria came home. 391 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:18,600 Speaker 1: Victoria remembered screaming, I will not permit his death. But 392 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,240 Speaker 1: then she grabbed Byron and held him in her arms, 393 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: and then she fell into a trance. The ceiling of 394 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,879 Speaker 1: the room disappeared from view, she later wrote, and the 395 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:32,679 Speaker 1: form of the Savior descended. Victoria and her son were 396 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,720 Speaker 1: frozen in place for seven hours. When she finally came 397 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: back to herself, Byron was breathing again. Whatever disease had 398 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: pulled him into death and had given him up again. 399 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 1: From that day on, Victoria said she was convinced that 400 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: divine favor was on her side. A divine power that 401 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,359 Speaker 1: could work through her to heal and comfort others with 402 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,200 Speaker 1: hopeless wounds. If she could heal where others could only despair, 403 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: then it was her responsibility to share those gifts with others. 404 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: And it was the trail of that healing work that 405 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:07,560 Speaker 1: brought her to St. Louis. Here's author Mary Gabrielle So. 406 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,520 Speaker 1: In the years after the civil or, Victoria was found 407 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: herself in St. Louis at one period, which was a 408 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:14,920 Speaker 1: really interesting place for her to be because it was 409 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 1: kind of a hub of spiritualism, but it was also 410 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,840 Speaker 1: a hub of radicalism. There were a lot of German immigrants, 411 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: and one of the things that happened after was that 412 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: a lot of the people who fled the conflicts in 413 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:27,840 Speaker 1: Europe landed in the United States, and a lot of 414 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,639 Speaker 1: the German radicals surprisingly went to St. Louis. So Victoria 415 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,400 Speaker 1: found herself in this kind of stew of people who 416 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 1: were engaged in spiritualism but also political reform, and she 417 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,920 Speaker 1: got her first kind of introduction to revolutionary politics there. 418 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: But at Victoria had started to absorb the attitudes of liberation, 419 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,159 Speaker 1: they took on a less abstract face. When a charming 420 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: man with a military bearing and piercing black eyes walked 421 00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: into the hotel room where she was holding seances. From 422 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 1: the moment they met, it was clear that he had 423 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:07,600 Speaker 1: everything Victoria's husband, Canning lacked. His name was James Harvey Blood. 424 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,679 Speaker 1: At just twenty nine, he was an ambitious man. He 425 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: was the city auditor, the president of the St. Louis Railroad, 426 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 1: and the founding secretary of the St. Louis Society of Spiritualists. 427 00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,800 Speaker 1: Victoria would soon learn just how well connected James was too. 428 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,880 Speaker 1: He came from an old family whose history on American 429 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,879 Speaker 1: soil ran back to a Massachusetts landing in sixteen seventeen, 430 00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 1: and in the previous decade his St. Louis circle had 431 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,439 Speaker 1: hosted the most prominent spiritualists in the nation, including Emma Harding, 432 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,240 Speaker 1: Cora Hatch, and Andrew Jackson Davis. But she learned that 433 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 1: his beautiful body carried the scars of bullet wounds that 434 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:47,639 Speaker 1: would plague him for the rest of his life. His 435 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,560 Speaker 1: stepson would later say that he saw five scars on 436 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 1: james body, although his military record only mentioned one, and 437 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: ever since returning from the war, James had suffered from 438 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:02,520 Speaker 1: intense headaches, shooting pain in his chest, and partial paralysis 439 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 1: in one arm from the mini ball that had burrowed 440 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: into his left shoulder. Over time, James would learn Victoria's 441 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: story as well, but he knew from their first meeting 442 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,159 Speaker 1: that he had found a great talent, as he wrote, 443 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:18,879 Speaker 1: and in him, Victoria had finally met her match. By 444 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: the end of their first seance, the spirit spoke through 445 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,600 Speaker 1: Victoria and told James Harvey Blood that the two of 446 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,480 Speaker 1: them were going to get married. The trouble was they 447 00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,840 Speaker 1: were both already married to other people, and they both 448 00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:35,920 Speaker 1: had children. But many spiritualists believed that everyone had natural 449 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,680 Speaker 1: mates and sympathetic souls waiting for them, and that those 450 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:45,200 Speaker 1: spiritual affinities mattered much more than any other kind of agreement, personal, legal, 451 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,240 Speaker 1: or otherwise. And then there was Victoria's view that marriage 452 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:53,280 Speaker 1: was little more than a prison. Here's Mary Gabriel once again. 453 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 1: She thought that all social problems were rooted in bad marriages, 454 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,040 Speaker 1: and so Blood. Luckily for Victoria, who probably blood was 455 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: probably kind of swept away by her as she was 456 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: by him, left the room and agreed it was. In 457 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: a very short time they had each left their respective 458 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:14,840 Speaker 1: spouses and went traveling together in a caravan which was 459 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,120 Speaker 1: basically kind of a getting to know each other trip. 460 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,680 Speaker 1: Following the spirit's encouragement, Victoria and James discovered they were 461 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,080 Speaker 1: a match made in heaven, so they continued Victoria's trade 462 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 1: as a traveling medium, adding James to the mix. His spirits, 463 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: though spoken, the voice of reform, just as they had 464 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,720 Speaker 1: to sojourn her truth Amy Post and the Sir Harmonique 465 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,480 Speaker 1: in New Orleans. One writer called him an extreme radical 466 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:44,720 Speaker 1: of the most uncompromising type. He was a zealous advocate 467 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:50,680 Speaker 1: of women's rights, abolition, and labor reform. She worked as 468 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,719 Speaker 1: a spiritualist, but it was it was a completely different 469 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: environment from anything she had experienced before. There was a 470 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: freedom to their relationship and an intellectual change that she 471 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,320 Speaker 1: had never had with anyone. And I think that this 472 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: was the moment when Victoria Woodhall as we came to 473 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,240 Speaker 1: know her, as as the world came to know her, 474 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,040 Speaker 1: was born and and actually Blood was her first teacher. 475 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,000 Speaker 1: When Victoria stepped out with James Blood, she was still 476 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,960 Speaker 1: calling herself a healer, and this time it was maybe 477 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,280 Speaker 1: more true than at any other point in the past 478 00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 1: five years. Without her father's schemes, placebos and outright poisons 479 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,880 Speaker 1: rattling on the margins of every seance. Victoria was able 480 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,200 Speaker 1: to give her full attention to her clients and the spirits, 481 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: and those clients paid for nothing but her time, her words, 482 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: and her sympathetic ear. From our vantage point today, it's 483 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 1: easy to see her work as something like psychotherapy. But 484 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 1: while the physical wounds of war were terrible, Victoria was 485 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,720 Speaker 1: most haunted by the stories she heard from women whose 486 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:57,440 Speaker 1: lives sounded so much like her own. Victoria would go 487 00:30:57,440 --> 00:30:59,920 Speaker 1: on to spend the coming decades writing down accounts of 488 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,840 Speaker 1: abuse of marriages and terrorized wise women who hated their 489 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: husbands but were forced into sex and motherhood. They didn't 490 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: want young women who were abandoned to fend for themselves, 491 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,560 Speaker 1: And in all these dark mirrors Victoria saw the suffering 492 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: of her own life reflected back. Perhaps that's why it 493 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: didn't take much encouragement from James for Victoria to turn 494 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:26,200 Speaker 1: her talents away from personal consultations. She had started thinking 495 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: about how a larger platform as a spiritualist might give 496 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,280 Speaker 1: her the chance to fight for the rights of all women. 497 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,640 Speaker 1: As a former army officer, James could see it too. 498 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 1: The fight for reform would indeed be a battle necessary 499 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 1: but difficult, and Victoria, he believed, would lead the charge. 500 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: Sojourner Truth didn't need introductions. The fight for liberation had 501 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,680 Speaker 1: and her life's work for decades. In eighteen sixty two, 502 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,840 Speaker 1: she had returned home to Michigan after a brutal tour 503 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,360 Speaker 1: through Indiana in which her rallies for abolition were opposed 504 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: at every step by increasingly vigorous mobs. But at the 505 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,000 Speaker 1: age of sixty five, the tour had taken its toll, 506 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 1: and she was spent. By the end of the year, 507 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 1: she was dangerously ill, and worrying about the possible outcomes 508 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,880 Speaker 1: of the war left her in a constant state of anxiety. 509 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: She knew the stakes, of course, she had spent her 510 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: life in a spiritual battle that had now crossed over 511 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,000 Speaker 1: into the world of flesh and blood. Her family and 512 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,480 Speaker 1: friends feared that she would die before the end of 513 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 1: the year. In the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation in 514 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: January of eighteen sixty three, some of Sojourners friends, especially 515 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:49,680 Speaker 1: among the Quakers, started a campaign of support for her. 516 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,040 Speaker 1: Letters and packages started to arrive at her home in 517 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:56,720 Speaker 1: Battle Creek, Michigan, Some from as far away as Ireland. 518 00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,120 Speaker 1: The encouragement brought by the Emancipation Nation was a wind 519 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,680 Speaker 1: under her wings. As she rallied out of her sickness, 520 00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:08,400 Speaker 1: Sojourner began to send her own gifts in return. Cards 521 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,160 Speaker 1: with her photograph were mailed to people who would otherwise 522 00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,360 Speaker 1: never have the chance to meet her face to face. 523 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:19,000 Speaker 1: But the Emancipation Proclamation was also met with a fierce backlash, 524 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: including waves of violence in Detroit that targeted the city's 525 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: black community and well known abolitionists. In response, Sojourner's grandson, James, 526 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,400 Speaker 1: joined up with two sons of Frederick Douglas, along with 527 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:35,120 Speaker 1: many other young men, to join the First Northern Black Regiment. 528 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,840 Speaker 1: Newspapers that had previously reported on Sojourner and Truth were 529 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:44,200 Speaker 1: now also including stories about Harriet Tubman and other black abolitionists. 530 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,600 Speaker 1: But if this newfound interest among white media raised sojourners spirits, 531 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: word that James had been lost in combat would have 532 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: dashed them to pieces. And then there were the reports 533 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,920 Speaker 1: that racist violence was devastating the black community in New 534 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,080 Speaker 1: York City, in the very same neighbor hood where Sojourner 535 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,440 Speaker 1: had once lived and worked. Some city leaders had shifted 536 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,880 Speaker 1: from calls for a secession to outrighte permission for white 537 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: people to attack their black neighbors. So Journer knew that 538 00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,440 Speaker 1: she needed to get back in the fight. She gathered 539 00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,719 Speaker 1: her strength and left Michigan behind, taking to the road again. 540 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,600 Speaker 1: Despite her recent illness about that journey, she wrote, I 541 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:23,919 Speaker 1: mean to live till I am a hundred years old 542 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: if it please God, and see my people all free, 543 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:31,040 Speaker 1: rather than join a black regiment. Though she set out 544 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four for Washington. On the way, she 545 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:37,320 Speaker 1: stopped in Rochester and stayed with Amy and Isaac post. 546 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,400 Speaker 1: Amy organized the lecture during her visit, and Sojourner and 547 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:45,040 Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas spoke together from the same platform once again. 548 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:49,840 Speaker 1: When she reached the capital, Sojourner met Lincoln and spoke 549 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,319 Speaker 1: in churches throughout the city. Before she traveled to the 550 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,120 Speaker 1: refugee camps. She found that the people who had freed 551 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:58,360 Speaker 1: themselves from captivity and come north were now subject to 552 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,840 Speaker 1: the whims of employers who would all for them jobs 553 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:05,160 Speaker 1: but then refused to pay. When they weren't fighting bad bosses, 554 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: they were taking government projects that paid months late. So 555 00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,640 Speaker 1: so a journal came up with a plan. She started 556 00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,080 Speaker 1: writing to Amy Post to coordinate deliveries of clothes, betting, 557 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,400 Speaker 1: and medicine to the Freedman's Village and asked for Amy 558 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: to send back word for opportunities for schooling and jobs 559 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: across her network. Here's historian Margaret Washington. She was a 560 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,600 Speaker 1: counselor Freedman's Village for about a year and a half 561 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,399 Speaker 1: and that was important. That was when Freedman's Village they 562 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: built homes. Sojourn her truth set up a church. She 563 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:45,160 Speaker 1: asked people congressmen to come when they had celebrations, and 564 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,640 Speaker 1: they would they would come and uh and see the 565 00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:52,600 Speaker 1: progress that the freed people were making. In fact, Sojourner 566 00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:56,200 Speaker 1: received an official appointment as counselor to the freed people 567 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,239 Speaker 1: at Freedman's Village when it was established on land that 568 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,680 Speaker 1: had been part of Robert Elise Arlington estate. She stayed 569 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: there until eighteen sixty five, when bills forming the Freedman's 570 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:09,360 Speaker 1: Bureau and the Freedman Savings Bank seemed to secure the 571 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:13,400 Speaker 1: new status of freedom for black Americans. Here's Margaret Washington 572 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: once again. So she stayed there for a year and 573 00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: a half and then she went to help with Josephine 574 00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,799 Speaker 1: in the city in Washington City. I think that's where 575 00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: she really thrived because she taught sewing and other domestic 576 00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:33,840 Speaker 1: arts to the women. Then she went to Freedman's Hospital 577 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,160 Speaker 1: and worked at Freedman's Hospital, which was going to become 578 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,879 Speaker 1: Howard University's medical school. She did that for a year 579 00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:45,360 Speaker 1: and a half. At the same time she is along 580 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:50,680 Speaker 1: with Josephine, setting up this employment office. I just found 581 00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:55,240 Speaker 1: that was that was just so fascinating. All that while 582 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: she stayed in touch with her network of spiritualist friends, 583 00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,960 Speaker 1: Man continued to work together with a Post. Amy and Isaac, 584 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,239 Speaker 1: for their part, kept their arms open in Rochester. So 585 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty six, when Sojourner traveled with over one 586 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: forty freed people to western New York, Amy and the 587 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,799 Speaker 1: community in Rochester were waiting for them, and she was 588 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,839 Speaker 1: occasionally joined at the Relief Association headquarters by other spiritualists 589 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,799 Speaker 1: who traveled to Washington to assist in the work in 590 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,080 Speaker 1: the years after the Civil War that included Cora Hatch. 591 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,359 Speaker 1: In fact, her mutual friendship with Amy Post was only 592 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,200 Speaker 1: one of the connections that formed a bond between her 593 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:40,319 Speaker 1: and Sojourner truth. They met in the eighteen fifties. In 594 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:44,480 Speaker 1: the book, I talked about this abolitionist singing group, the Hutchinson's. 595 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,400 Speaker 1: The Hutchinsons were the most popular folk singers in America, 596 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:53,760 Speaker 1: but they were also radical abolitionists. They were good friends 597 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:57,480 Speaker 1: of Sojourners. They spent a lot of time at Northampton. 598 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:03,279 Speaker 1: There's one abbey. Abbey was a spiritualist, and Abby had 599 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,719 Speaker 1: Cora Hatch at her house a lot. Cora and so 600 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:10,600 Speaker 1: Journer met at Abby Hudginson's home. They met there several 601 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,840 Speaker 1: times that I've found because when so Journer was after 602 00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,319 Speaker 1: she got well and she said, I'm determined to go 603 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,640 Speaker 1: to Washington and see the freedom of my people. She 604 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 1: stayed with Abby Hutchinson and Cora was also there. Then 605 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:31,600 Speaker 1: Cora went to Washington until Journer was there. While she 606 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:35,400 Speaker 1: worked alongside so Journer in Washington, Cora also stayed in 607 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,480 Speaker 1: touch with Amy Post. She wrote a letter to Rochester 608 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:43,160 Speaker 1: saying that important things are happening here at the Freedman's Village, 609 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,759 Speaker 1: laboring together to bring a new world into being. Both 610 00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:50,200 Speaker 1: women would eventually move from the Freedman's Hospital to the 611 00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:54,560 Speaker 1: black churches growing around Washington, and in doing so they 612 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:59,520 Speaker 1: would weave together the ultimate spiritualist vision, making the world 613 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:12,560 Speaker 1: new again. A familiar figure stepped onto the New Orleans docks. 614 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,600 Speaker 1: She had once been Cora Scott, and then for a 615 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 1: long while Cora Hatch. All along she had won praise 616 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,440 Speaker 1: for her beautiful curls and the power and intellect of 617 00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,560 Speaker 1: the spirits who spoke through her. Now, in May of 618 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:31,279 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, she was Cora Daniels. No longer the 619 00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:34,720 Speaker 1: little girl from Wisconsin, or even the unfortunate young wife 620 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:38,280 Speaker 1: of a selfish promoter. Cora now stood in New Orleans 621 00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:41,759 Speaker 1: as the wife of Nathan W. Daniels. He was the 622 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,319 Speaker 1: man who had served as the commanding officer for the 623 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,160 Speaker 1: Louisiana Native Guards during the war before being discharged for 624 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: defending them against racist white officers, and he'd sat for 625 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,400 Speaker 1: seances with Henri and the members of his Sir Carmonique 626 00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:58,080 Speaker 1: when he returned to the North. Nathan was among those 627 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,600 Speaker 1: spiritualists who had been invited to the White House to 628 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,399 Speaker 1: attend a seance with Mary Lincoln, even though he had 629 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,960 Speaker 1: never met the president. But it was all worth it 630 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,919 Speaker 1: because he met someone better, a beautiful spiritualist medium who 631 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,080 Speaker 1: was working with her friends to build the world of 632 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:17,439 Speaker 1: radical equality that the spirits cried out for Cora. Their 633 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,640 Speaker 1: record of sciences held during their time in Washington shows 634 00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:24,080 Speaker 1: just how close Cora had become to the capital's spiritualists, 635 00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:28,080 Speaker 1: including Neddie Colburn, Giles Stebbins, who had been converted by 636 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 1: sojourn or truth at Northampton, and a nurse named Clara Barton, 637 00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:35,240 Speaker 1: whose experiences during the war would lead her to create 638 00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:39,239 Speaker 1: the American Red Cross. When Cora and Nathan arrived in 639 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:43,200 Speaker 1: New Orleans, they carried new life with them. Their infant daughter, Henrietta, 640 00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,160 Speaker 1: and Nathan had been appointed to a government post in 641 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:49,759 Speaker 1: the city. Together, they believed they would bring hope to 642 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:54,080 Speaker 1: a place Nathan loved. He was eager to do some good. 643 00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,239 Speaker 1: Just like James Blood, Nathan was a man ready to 644 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,000 Speaker 1: put his courage and vigor toward the cause of rebuild 645 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 1: holding a just and equitable society, this time with his 646 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,080 Speaker 1: wife and daughter beside him. Cora spent most of her 647 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,840 Speaker 1: time caring for Henrietta, but her experience as a spiritualist 648 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,920 Speaker 1: and connection to the former members of the Native Guard 649 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:18,560 Speaker 1: eventually earned her an invitation to speak. In response, she 650 00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:22,759 Speaker 1: set pen to paper to write a memorial poem. It 651 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:26,040 Speaker 1: was meant to be a spirit inspired accompaniment for the 652 00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:30,080 Speaker 1: ringing of funeral bells, a harsh reality for so many 653 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:34,439 Speaker 1: people after the war. But those funeral bells would soon 654 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:40,200 Speaker 1: be ringing much louder than she expected, louder and far 655 00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:46,400 Speaker 1: too close to home. That's it for this week's episode 656 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,600 Speaker 1: of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor break for 657 00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:56,160 Speaker 1: a preview of what's in store for next week. Next 658 00:41:56,160 --> 00:42:02,520 Speaker 1: time on Unobscured. If the early seances portrayed Native spirits 659 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,560 Speaker 1: as guides and healers for white spiritualists, the tone changed 660 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,800 Speaker 1: as reports of more violence reached seance circles in the East. 661 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,479 Speaker 1: When murdered leaders arrived to speak at seance tables. During 662 00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:16,800 Speaker 1: the reports of genocide and dispossession of the eighteen sixties 663 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:21,760 Speaker 1: and seventies, Indian blessings on spiritualists were replaced by Indian curses, 664 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:28,319 Speaker 1: curses on a nation whose soldiers and citizens had murdered them. 665 00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:30,640 Speaker 1: But as other newspapers fell in line with the white 666 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:35,200 Speaker 1: supremacist rhetoric of writers who pushed the idea of manifest destiny, 667 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,960 Speaker 1: the Banner of Light continued to print criticisms of that message. 668 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,640 Speaker 1: It was their responsibility to heed the voices of the spirits, 669 00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:46,120 Speaker 1: after all, and report their messages to the reading public. 670 00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,080 Speaker 1: Something was happening. Spiritualists who had viewed slavery as a 671 00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,760 Speaker 1: sin that left a stain on the nation had begun 672 00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: to see America's westward advancement into the territory of the 673 00:42:57,120 --> 00:43:00,920 Speaker 1: Native Americans as just more of the same. Their editorials 674 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,399 Speaker 1: called u S policy a fraud and a swindle at 675 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:08,360 Speaker 1: a time when few other voices would. As violence piled 676 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:12,160 Speaker 1: on violence. Cora and the radical politicians who heeded her 677 00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:15,400 Speaker 1: spirits were sure that this was just one more way 678 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:18,279 Speaker 1: that the nation needed to be knocked down and made 679 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:23,040 Speaker 1: new again. But to take those stains away, they needed 680 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:43,000 Speaker 1: more than hope. Unobscured was created by me Aaron Manky 681 00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:46,440 Speaker 1: and produced by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh Thane 682 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,960 Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heart Radio. Research and writing for 683 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,399 Speaker 1: this season is all the work of my right hand man, 684 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,720 Speaker 1: Carl Nellis and the brilliant Chad Lawson composed the brand 685 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,960 Speaker 1: new soundtrack. Learn more about our contributing historians. Source materi 686 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,520 Speaker 1: a real and links to our other shows over at 687 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:07,960 Speaker 1: history unobscured dot com and until next time, thanks for listening. 688 00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:17,960 Speaker 1: Unobscured is a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Menkey. 689 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:20,239 Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit I heart 690 00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 691 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:23,320 Speaker 1: favorite shows.