1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:12,440 Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: Cora sat under a canopy of oak trees. She held 3 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: a blank slate in her hand, waiting to be filled 4 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 1: as she copied out her lessons. It was a warm 5 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: afternoon in the fall of eighteen fifty one, and even 6 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: at eleven corus curiosity and studious nous kept her at 7 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: work while other children played in the trees around her. 8 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: People who knew Cora said that she was much like 9 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson Davis, a relatively ordinary child. When her family 10 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: was still in New York, living at Aiden Blue's utopian 11 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 1: community Hopeedale. Aiden's daughter Abby was Corrus teacher, and her 12 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: notes from the time give us one small clue to 13 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: the future that was coming for Cora. Abbey wrote that 14 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: the girl was an excellent performer. She shone in the 15 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: theatricals they held at the community school even more frequently. 16 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: Friends and relatives remarked that Cora was sensitive. She was 17 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,199 Speaker 1: always a well of emotion, apt to burst into tears 18 00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: or laughter at a moment's notice. An unkind word, a 19 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: misunderstood expression, or any surprise affected her deeply. She wasn't 20 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: particularly precocious for her age. They said. She liked school, 21 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: but she wasn't over studious. Intelligent, but a bit of 22 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: a dreamer, they said. So it was no surprise on 23 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 1: that warm Wisconsin afternoon, with the sounds of other children 24 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: playing around her, and that she fell asleep, But in 25 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: doing so, she also fell into history. When she woke up, 26 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: Cora found that her slate was covered in writing. Guessing 27 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: that one of the other kids had done it as 28 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: a joke, she went into the house and asked her 29 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: mother to help her wipe it clean. Cora's mother took 30 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: the slate from her, but froze when she read the words. 31 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: It began, my dear sister, and at the bottom it 32 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: was signed with the name of Cora's aunt, who had 33 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: been dead for decades. What scared her mother, though, was 34 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: that some of the kids who had been outside with 35 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,799 Speaker 1: Cora had knocked on the door an hour before. They 36 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: told her they'd seen something strange that Cora had been 37 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: writing in her sleep. She scrubbed off the slate and 38 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: handed it back to her daughter without a word, but 39 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: it put her on alert. Two days later, as Cora's 40 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: mother sat sewing, she saw the girl again start to 41 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: doze in the heat of the day. When she tried 42 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,799 Speaker 1: to wake the girl up, Cora didn't respond. She started 43 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:37,799 Speaker 1: to worry that Cora was coming down with some kind 44 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: of sickness, but she also noticed a strange trembling motion 45 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: in Cora's hand. Remembering the slate, she stopped trying to 46 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: wake Cora up, and instead she put a pencil in 47 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:54,079 Speaker 1: the shaking fingers, and Cora began to write. One message 48 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: after another flowed out, signed by different members of the family, 49 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: all of them were dead. They shured her that Cora 50 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:05,359 Speaker 1: wasn't being harmed, she was simply put the perfect vessel 51 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:08,959 Speaker 1: for them their new means of communicating with those on earth. 52 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:13,359 Speaker 1: This time, Cora's mother didn't keep the news to herself, 53 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: so in the house was crowded with visitors who all 54 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: came to see the girl who could write in her sleep. 55 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: One German doctor, who was familiar with mesmerism, proposed to 56 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,959 Speaker 1: Cora's parents that he should put Cora into a magnetic 57 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: trance to see if she could speak with the spirits 58 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: on command. They must have agreed. In the following days, 59 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: Cora and the German doctor were working together for long 60 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: hours inside her parents home, treating patients and providing diagnoses, 61 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: sometimes for up to six hours a day. In the 62 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: blink of an eye, Wisconsin had its own miracle girl, 63 00:03:54,520 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: one who could open graves in her sleep. This is unobscured. 64 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:25,719 Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Manky. The news spread like lightning. Of course, 65 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: after sitting in spiritualist seances at Hopedale, Cora's parents could 66 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: hardly be confused about what they were witnessing. As he 67 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,159 Speaker 1: talked with the neighbors, her father, David realized that his 68 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,720 Speaker 1: family were the first spiritualist to reach Wisconsin. He'd come 69 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 1: to launch the western branch of Aiden BLUs Hopedale Community, 70 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 1: but Cora's new spirit messages had become more important than 71 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: any utopian experiment, so he took up the mantle of 72 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: missionary for this new age of spirit revelation. David's teachings 73 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: kindled just as many flames of fear as it did 74 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: lamps of inspiration. For example, Mary Folsom, the eighteen year 75 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: old teacher at Cora's school, was deeply shocked by all 76 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: of it. She was a devout Christian, and in her view, 77 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:13,560 Speaker 1: it was her lessons that should fill Cora's slate. Cast 78 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: from the seed of authority in favor of the girl. 79 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: Mary fumed from the sidelines. Surely there was only one 80 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: way to understand her displacement by mysterious intelligences from the 81 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: spirit world. Cora was in the grip of demonic possession, 82 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: so Mary took the prayer. She begged that the evil 83 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: influence over the girl would be cast out, and then 84 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 1: she waited for results. The stories kept coming, though in 85 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: fact it seemed like Cora's trances were happening more frequently now. 86 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: Even as Mary's anxiety grew, Cora's family moved forward and 87 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,280 Speaker 1: embraced their new mission. One Sunday morning, most of Mary's 88 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,120 Speaker 1: relatives decided that instead of attending church, they were going 89 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: to as Seiance with Cora to hear from the spirits. 90 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: It was everything the young teacher had feared. They apsed 91 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: out of the house, much to Mary's fury, leaving her 92 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 1: behind with her father. While they were gone, though, Mary 93 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,280 Speaker 1: felt the spirit power for herself. She was in the 94 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: kitchen laboring over the dirty dishes when an invisible weight 95 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: slammed into her body, crushing her to the floor. Some 96 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,719 Speaker 1: voice in a language she didn't know or understand, launched 97 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,479 Speaker 1: from her mouth, The sound brought her father in, but 98 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: there was nothing he could do to break her free 99 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,680 Speaker 1: from whatever pinned her down. In fact, Mary later said 100 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: that she felt it lift her off her knees and 101 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: lead her toward her father's Bible. Mary's hands flipped frantically 102 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: through the pages, where her fingers traced the words visions, dreams, signs, wonders, miracles. 103 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: When the grip of the power left her, Mary and 104 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: her father were both shaken, but her anxiety was also gone. 105 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 1: The spirit power hadn't driven her away from God, but 106 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: toward him. She was left with a fresh determination to 107 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,680 Speaker 1: seek out Core and talk with the spirits. When she 108 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: finally sat down with a girl, things started the way 109 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: she expected. A strange voice was speaking rapidly from the 110 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: eleven year old in a language Mary couldn't understand. But 111 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: then her own moth started to move. Suddenly she was 112 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: talking with Cora in German. The two of them traded 113 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: comments while they're puzzled. Families watched from around the room. 114 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 1: Cora's German mesmerist translated for the crowd in wonder you See. 115 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: Mary didn't know German, and she certainly hadn't taught her 116 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: student to speak it. Soon enough, Mary was following in 117 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: Cora's footsteps around Waterloo, dispensing medical advice from the spirit world. 118 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: As far as they were concerned, the miracles that have 119 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: been promised and the Bible had finally arrived. But Mary 120 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 1: quickly found that she had simply stepped from one side 121 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: of the argument to the other. She knew she had 122 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: switched sides, but as far as the local churches went, 123 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 1: she had crossed a line. The churches in Waterloo held 124 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: a revival meeting. Pastors took turns preaching against the growing 125 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: interest in speaking with the dead. Even the local doctors 126 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: took a turn urging their neighbors to come to them 127 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: for medical advice rather than a pair of young girls 128 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: with no medical training claiming to get their messages from 129 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: spirit powers. But these warnings landed with a thud. After all, 130 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: the people they were shouting against were teenagers who said 131 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:23,560 Speaker 1: they just wanted to be obedient and follow the truth. 132 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 1: What threat could these girls pose against the authorities and 133 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: their community. Here's historian and browdy. In some ways, the 134 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:40,600 Speaker 1: spirit medium is like a mirror image of the ideal 135 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: Christian woman. At the same time that she pushes the 136 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:51,760 Speaker 1: characteristics of the ideal nineteen century Christian woman to its extreme. 137 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: So you know, what's sometimes referred to as the cult 138 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: of true womanhood in the nineteen century posits the notion 139 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: and that women by nature are pure, passive, and pious. 140 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: If women have these spiritual qualities more than men do, 141 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:19,520 Speaker 1: then they can sense spirits. They are perfectly suited to 142 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 1: be vehicles for divine knowledge. Cora, Mary, and their families 143 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: were too certain of this new power to be put 144 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: off by the outbursts of scared leaders who saw their 145 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 1: followers slipping out of their hands. The power that spoke 146 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:38,719 Speaker 1: through the young girls was greater. David found himself in 147 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: a fight for his daughter's legitimacy. He spent every waking 148 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: moment of the next few months traveling the region and 149 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: proclaiming the amazing news of his daughter's contact with the dead, 150 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: often accompanied by Cora and her German Mesmerist, to demonstrate 151 00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:55,680 Speaker 1: that the dead were striving to reconnect with the living. 152 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:00,840 Speaker 1: An outpouring of spirit voices followed in their awake, and 153 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: rather than catching the spirit of revival from their local churches, 154 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: the communities around Waterloo, Wisconsin, began to sprout with new 155 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:13,600 Speaker 1: mediums at the horizons of American life. This exciting new 156 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 1: religion was finding a foothold. Wisconsin was just the beginning. 157 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,079 Speaker 1: In fact, spiritualism was about to rush from local spectacle 158 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:33,319 Speaker 1: into a global movement on a whirlwind world tour. That's 159 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:38,359 Speaker 1: thanks in part to Daniel Hume. Daniel was from Scotland, 160 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: raised by his aunt and uncle. He traveled with them 161 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,199 Speaker 1: to the United States when he was only a few 162 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 1: years old, where they settled in Connecticut. His mother was 163 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: finally able to join them when Daniel was seventeen, but 164 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: shortly after their reunion she died. We can imagine how 165 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 1: cruel a loss it was for Daniel too. Apparently his 166 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,240 Speaker 1: mother thought it was cruel as well. On a night 167 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,840 Speaker 1: soon after her death, when Daniel was looking into the 168 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: dimness of his bedroom mirror, a movement caught his eye 169 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,959 Speaker 1: in the room behind him. In the reflection, he saw 170 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:12,920 Speaker 1: an empty chair sliding slowly across the floor toward him. 171 00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:15,200 Speaker 1: He whipped around, only to find there was no one 172 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: else in the room. Other more familiar events began tapping 173 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 1: sounds on his headboard when he would lie down to sleep, 174 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,320 Speaker 1: tapping that then followed him to breakfast in the morning. Soon, 175 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: anytime he sat down to eat with his aunt and uncle, 176 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,120 Speaker 1: it was like someone was drumming on the table with 177 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:36,080 Speaker 1: their fingers. Later, the table and sometimes the chairs started 178 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:39,679 Speaker 1: to shift without being touched. Daniel's aunt, who had heard 179 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:42,640 Speaker 1: about the rappings in Rochester and like so many others, 180 00:11:42,679 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: believed them to be the work of the devil, called 181 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: in all three of her towns ministers. When they observed 182 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: the phenomena around the boy, they confirmed her fears. She 183 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,160 Speaker 1: was so terrified that Daniel simply had to leave. He 184 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: went to live with a friend nearby, who took the 185 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: news about the events with much us fear. He wasn't 186 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 1: the only one either. In fact, Daniel kept his head 187 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:06,679 Speaker 1: through it all because he remembered what had always been 188 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:11,400 Speaker 1: said about his mother. She had been a seer, She 189 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,440 Speaker 1: had always had the second sight, and she reportedly knew 190 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 1: what was happening to her loved ones, no matter how 191 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,480 Speaker 1: far away from her they were. So when the knocking began, 192 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: Daniel knew why she was still watching over him from 193 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:29,040 Speaker 1: beyond the grave. And then Daniel's story hit the papers. Suddenly, 194 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 1: despite what the minister said, Daniel was in demand among 195 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:34,840 Speaker 1: his neighbors. Soon enough, the homes of the curious in 196 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 1: his neighborhood were playing host to turning tables and rocking chairs. 197 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:40,959 Speaker 1: His aunt may not have wanted him in her house, 198 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: but there were plenty who did so. Daniel went on 199 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: the road, and then in March of eighteen fifty one, 200 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: he took a fateful invitation to hold a seance in 201 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: the house of a woman named Maria Hayden. A group 202 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: that gathered that night settled themselves around a large, heavy 203 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 1: table and reached out for each other's hands. The pad 204 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: and of what we think of today as a seance 205 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: was already starting to come together. Here's historian John Busher. 206 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: They typically would sit around in a table and join 207 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:16,240 Speaker 1: hand and wait for things to happen. Light tree usually 208 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: turned down fairly low, and one of them would act 209 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: as a medium. Sometimes things would happen that we're not 210 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: just what you might think of as messages. This was 211 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: one of those times. When Maria Hayden and her husband 212 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 1: William joined their guests in a circle. They laid their 213 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 1: hands flat on the surface of the table as they've 214 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: been taught, and hushed voices. They asked any nearby spirits 215 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: to come and show them what they could do through 216 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:54,160 Speaker 1: Daniel's mediumship. Suddenly, the table started to turn beneath their hands. 217 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:58,480 Speaker 1: Some of the guests were startled and ducked under the 218 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,559 Speaker 1: table to see if anyone was pushing it around. Even 219 00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:04,880 Speaker 1: though the table was large and heavy, it rotated smoothly 220 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,720 Speaker 1: until the group lifted their hands off of it, and 221 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: then it stopped. William Hayden, convinced it was a trick, 222 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 1: gripped the table with his hands and tried to turn 223 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: it using his own strength, but it wouldn't budge until 224 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: he let go. That is, then, even though no one 225 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: was touching it anymore, the table resumed spinning, this time 226 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:28,240 Speaker 1: faster than before. William tried to grab the table to 227 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:30,800 Speaker 1: make it stop, but when that didn't work, he climbed 228 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: underneath it and wrapped his arms around the table legs. 229 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,040 Speaker 1: It dragged him in a slow circle across the floor. 230 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: There was such a world shaking experience that William Hayden 231 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:45,160 Speaker 1: wrote a report that was published in the local paper. Again, 232 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:49,200 Speaker 1: Daniel's profile was raised, and interest in the powerful manifestations 233 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:52,960 Speaker 1: of spirit presence grew. But Daniel wasn't the only medium 234 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:57,800 Speaker 1: to leave that seance. After that night, Maria Hayden herself 235 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:00,280 Speaker 1: seemed to become more sensitive to the w old of 236 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,600 Speaker 1: the spirits, a result of her encounter with a powerful 237 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: young Scott, no doubt. Soon enough the Hayden's were hosting 238 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:12,680 Speaker 1: even more seances around that heavy table. But now it 239 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: was Maria who had become the instrument of the spirits. 240 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:31,040 Speaker 1: They had crossed the greatest divide imaginable, the one between 241 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: life and death. News of Andrew Jackson Davis's harmonial philosophy 242 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,440 Speaker 1: had reached England, and that news brought curious mesmerists to 243 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: American shores, men like George Stone. Stone was an electro biologist, 244 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,160 Speaker 1: along with being a fan and follower of the J. 245 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: Stanley Grimes school of freno magnetism we talked about in 246 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 1: episode one, and George wanted to see for himself the 247 00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:00,480 Speaker 1: most striking success of Grimes methods. He wanted to witnessed 248 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 1: the power of the spirits speaking through American mediums. So 249 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 1: by the end of eighteen fifty two, Stone was in Connecticut, 250 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: where he was welcomed in by Maria Hayden. No one 251 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: recorded what took place at those sittings, but George was 252 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: clearly overcome, he urged Maria to return with him to 253 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,360 Speaker 1: England and demonstrate her abilities. There. He told her that 254 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: the British public would rejoice to witness the new revelations. 255 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: Maria agreed, and when she arrived, she took a room 256 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: in London and sent out advertisements. An American spiritualist medium 257 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 1: had arrived, but she found that George Stone wasn't quite 258 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: so spot on about her reception, at least not in London, 259 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: where American newspapers had often treated spiritualism with skepticism. The 260 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: British press blasted it with outright scorn. The London Times 261 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 1: flat out declined to publish her advertisements, while other papers 262 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:58,479 Speaker 1: lit into her with relish. It was, as a spiritualist 263 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: historian would later put it, a storm of ribaldry, persecution 264 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: and insult. And even though Maria was deeply hurt by 265 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,840 Speaker 1: her handling in the British newspapers, she experienced the old 266 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: truism as well, that there's no such thing as bad press, 267 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,359 Speaker 1: she also had connections to draw on. You see, she 268 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:20,520 Speaker 1: was able to get a sitting with Robert Owen, the 269 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: Scottish industrialist. His utopian communes had been part of that 270 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: American Wave of social experiments a decade earlier. His travels 271 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:31,439 Speaker 1: in the US had already earned a macrowd of American friends, 272 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,840 Speaker 1: and his love for the Shakers opened his arms to Maria. 273 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,119 Speaker 1: At eighty three, Robert was coming to the end of 274 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: his life, but when he sat with Maria Hayden to 275 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 1: hear from the spirits, it was no doubt because he'd 276 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:48,399 Speaker 1: never lost his curiosity or pioneering spirit, and of course, 277 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:50,880 Speaker 1: with old age taking hold of him, it would only 278 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 1: make sense that he would want to hear from those 279 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,720 Speaker 1: who had crossed the threshold that he himself was quickly approaching. 280 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: He was convinced by the miss serious noises, and he 281 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:05,480 Speaker 1: became Maria's most important British convert to spiritualism, and he 282 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,639 Speaker 1: laid down a path that would lead his son to 283 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,800 Speaker 1: the Fox Sisters in the coming decades. But let's not 284 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: get ahead of ourselves, shall we. Of course, it helped 285 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:16,919 Speaker 1: that George Stone wasn't the only English doctor working with 286 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:21,080 Speaker 1: the medical mesmerism and electro biology. In fact, the chief 287 00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: medical magnetizer in all of England, a man named Dr 288 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: John Elliotson, had some very distinguished patients, many of whom 289 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:33,679 Speaker 1: were British writers William Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and 290 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Barrett's father were among his clients. For Dickens in particular, 291 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: the arrival of American spiritualists was exciting. You see, he 292 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,639 Speaker 1: had traveled through America in eighteen forty two and tried 293 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:49,240 Speaker 1: to get an invitation to a Shaker meeting so that 294 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,040 Speaker 1: he could hear from the spirits in those closed communities. 295 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:56,159 Speaker 1: But Shakers weren't interested in becoming pop culture entertainment and 296 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,879 Speaker 1: he was turned away. So Dickens and others in his 297 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,120 Speaker 1: circle queued up eagerly to question the spirits when they 298 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:06,160 Speaker 1: had heard American mediums were in London. Others had more 299 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:10,160 Speaker 1: luck than Charles Dickens. An English shoemaker named David Richmond 300 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:13,160 Speaker 1: had joined the Shakers in eighteen forty six and lived 301 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:16,120 Speaker 1: in the community for five years. He wasn't a writer 302 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:20,320 Speaker 1: looking to collect curiosities, though he himself became a Shaker. 303 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: In fact, when he returned to England in eighteen fifty three, 304 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,040 Speaker 1: he came home as a Shaker missionary. He started in 305 00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:30,560 Speaker 1: his hometown of Darlington, preaching about the power of Shakerism 306 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:36,200 Speaker 1: and contacting the dead. While American celebrities like Maria Hayden 307 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: were making inroads into London's upper crust, David Richmond was 308 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,359 Speaker 1: welcomed by industrial workers and followers of Robert Owen, especially 309 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:49,119 Speaker 1: in Yorkshire. Richmond's table turning manifestations won a host of converts, 310 00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: especially among working people who had had enough of churches, 311 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,399 Speaker 1: governments and bosses telling them what to do and what 312 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: to believe. Here's author and journalist Mary Gabriel. Europe was 313 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,960 Speaker 1: on fire, for it was a movement called Springtime of 314 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:09,120 Speaker 1: the people, and the people in Europe actually revolted against 315 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:11,960 Speaker 1: their kings, their governments. They were happy enough to fill 316 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:15,000 Speaker 1: their coffers with the proceeds of industrialization, but they didn't 317 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: want to make the social changes that were required. The 318 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: everyday folks, you know, the the farmers, the small trades people, 319 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,440 Speaker 1: the people who were forced off their lands and moved 320 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: into cities, were being buffeted by forces that were so 321 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: much greater than them. They fled to the cities and 322 00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:37,880 Speaker 1: started filling tenements and factories with their work. Spiritualism inspired 323 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:42,239 Speaker 1: one labor organizer to launch the Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph, and 324 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:46,080 Speaker 1: as David Richmond traveled from factory to factory. The newspaper 325 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,639 Speaker 1: joined him and continued to attract readers to the seance table. 326 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: By the end of eighteen fifty three, some industrial towns 327 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,200 Speaker 1: in Britain were drawing the same packed crowds to spirit 328 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: demonstrations that had filled the Corinthian Hall in Rochester. It 329 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,879 Speaker 1: should come as no surprise that there were many communities 330 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:08,040 Speaker 1: across Europe, places like Germany, Italy and elsewhere, that also 331 00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 1: took up seances and spirit circles, sort of like family 332 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 1: welcoming home the offspring of an American cousin. Everywhere that 333 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: the news of spiritualism traveled, it followed audiences wrestling with 334 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,720 Speaker 1: new ideas, just as they were in America. And it's 335 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: crucial to remember that many of the intellectual and scientific 336 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: novelties that laid the groundwork for American spiritualism originally came 337 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: from Europe in the first place. The spiritualist radicals believe 338 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,639 Speaker 1: that Karl Marx had been mistaken when he wrote that 339 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,359 Speaker 1: a specter is haunting Europe. He dispensed it as a 340 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: simple metaphor for spiritualists, though the statement was something more. 341 00:21:47,320 --> 00:22:01,000 Speaker 1: It was literal truth. Louis was an alchemist of religious thought. 342 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:05,919 Speaker 1: Like Andrew Jackson Davis, he mingled Emmanuel Swedenborg's theology of 343 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:08,879 Speaker 1: the spirit world with the electoral biology of men like 344 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: Stanley Grimes or John Elliotson. But Louis Alphonse Kiana had 345 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,720 Speaker 1: a more privileged view on some of those ideas. You see, 346 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: he was in Paris, the heart of Mesmerism. Mesmer's magnetism 347 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: had been all the rage among the city's aristocrats during 348 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:29,120 Speaker 1: the seventeen seventies. It survived the French Revolution that scattered 349 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 1: Mesmer's followers to the wind, and even managed to bounce 350 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 1: back from a government commission that condemned Mesmer's idea of 351 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: a universal fluid in seventeen eighty four. Louis was another 352 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: of the spiritualist to come from the working class. A 353 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,280 Speaker 1: cabinet maker who earned his living by the sweat of 354 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,920 Speaker 1: his brow, Louis crafted his theology and long weary nights 355 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,040 Speaker 1: of study with a sawdust still clinging to his clothes. 356 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: Like Andrew Jackson Davis and England's David Richmond, he also 357 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,200 Speaker 1: turned his powers of magnetism toward healing, but he focused 358 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: on a special category of ailments sleepwalking. Ever since France 359 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,800 Speaker 1: mesmer Most French magnetizers had been interested in the ways 360 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,800 Speaker 1: that charismatic men of the upper class could impose their 361 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:17,760 Speaker 1: willpower and aggression on others. It was an ongoing battlefield 362 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:21,320 Speaker 1: and the war of ideas for equality. Like the flip 363 00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:23,920 Speaker 1: side of the American religious idea that women were more 364 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,440 Speaker 1: open to the spirits because of their passive, willing souls, 365 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,720 Speaker 1: some French mesmerists continued experimenting with the idea that naturally strong, 366 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: willed men could dominate more passive minds by manipulating invisible 367 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:41,040 Speaker 1: psychic forces. Louis was no aristocrat, but he was still 368 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:44,200 Speaker 1: charmed by the idea of wielding power over more passive 369 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,520 Speaker 1: Parisians and who could be more passive but also more 370 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,119 Speaker 1: puzzling than a sleepwalker. He could shape oak and pine 371 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: to his will, but could he wield magnetism like a 372 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: chisel to sculpt the minds and bodies of other people. 373 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 1: He was in the early eighteen forties that Louise started 374 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,000 Speaker 1: trying out magnetic trances on a childhood friend, Adele, who 375 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,400 Speaker 1: had been a sleepwalker ever since she was young. At first, 376 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: it worked like a charm. In fact, Louis claimed that 377 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: he'd even cured her, but that's when the spirit started 378 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 1: speaking to her. Some of their revelations sounded like the 379 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,920 Speaker 1: same sort of thing that Andrew Jackson Davis would hear. 380 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 1: The spirits helped Adle diagnosed diseases around her and even 381 00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,960 Speaker 1: prescribed cures. Others wanted to tell family members about the 382 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,639 Speaker 1: way that they had died. But something more terrifying started 383 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,840 Speaker 1: happening to adult during these seances. You see, when a 384 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: spirit would take hold of her and speak through her mouth, 385 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: other things would happen to her body as well. In fact, 386 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: as Louie would later write, the wounds and diseases that 387 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,240 Speaker 1: had killed the spirits began to appear on Adele's body. 388 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,399 Speaker 1: She would suffer from coughing fits, Terrible burns would bloom 389 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,119 Speaker 1: on her skin once she started choking so hard she 390 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 1: couldn't breathe, and after another trance, a fit of thrashing 391 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 1: and screaming to over her body and left her out 392 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: of her mind for days. Nothing Louis tried would send 393 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:08,119 Speaker 1: the spirits out. Finally, at his wits end, he prayed 394 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,359 Speaker 1: to the spirit of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Adele finally relaxed and 395 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,320 Speaker 1: lay at rest. It seems it took a power greater 396 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:20,639 Speaker 1: than Louis to command the wild spirits. His book describing 397 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:24,119 Speaker 1: these seances arrived on store shelves in eighteen forty eight, 398 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,120 Speaker 1: just as a revolutionary spirit was gripping Paris for those 399 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,280 Speaker 1: who felt the heartbeat of an age of freedom. The 400 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,959 Speaker 1: nation had been sleepwalking under the influence of powerful leaders 401 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,760 Speaker 1: for far too long. In February of that year, huge 402 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: crowds of demonstrators revolted, took the city and declared the 403 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:46,160 Speaker 1: Second Republic. Revolutionaries struggled for power with government officials who 404 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 1: wanted to repeal reforms and returned to social hierarchy. It 405 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 1: was the perfect moment for spiritualism. Here's Emily Clark, Associate 406 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. There was something 407 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,960 Speaker 1: very countercultural about spiritualism, especially in any place that had 408 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,760 Speaker 1: a history of church and state being connected. Spiritualism really 409 00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:14,440 Speaker 1: issues denominational institutional structure, especially in a place like Great 410 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,639 Speaker 1: Britain where there's a lot of spiritualists, or even in France, 411 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,120 Speaker 1: these countries that have a much longer history of church 412 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:25,000 Speaker 1: and state being connected. Here you've got this countercultural religious 413 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:30,719 Speaker 1: movement in this combustible atmosphere. Louis organized the Society of 414 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:35,639 Speaker 1: Spiritualist Magnetizers of Paris. For three years, they experimented together 415 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,440 Speaker 1: and published reports of their amazing contacts. When news arrived 416 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,560 Speaker 1: from the United States that the spirits had begun to 417 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,760 Speaker 1: speak there as well, interest finally exploded even beyond French 418 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: borders for what they called the tablea tournant, the turning tables. 419 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,440 Speaker 1: The wild freedom was short lived, though. Napoleon, the third 420 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: nephew of the infamous emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, retook the government 421 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,240 Speaker 1: in the Middle Terry Coup. He joined the Catholic Church 422 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,400 Speaker 1: in trying to ban publications and suppress social clubs clubs 423 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,439 Speaker 1: Like Louise, it didn't help that the church authorities were 424 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:14,320 Speaker 1: absolutely convinced that spiritualism was demonic. They even formed new 425 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,320 Speaker 1: police forces to stamp out seances any source of inspiration 426 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,119 Speaker 1: that might undermine the authority of tradition. But like Maria 427 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,080 Speaker 1: Haydn's husband being dragged around the room beneath his spinning 428 00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:30,000 Speaker 1: oak table, government forces found themselves running in circles. Reports 429 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: had already started to filter back to Paris from German 430 00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 1: newspapers that spiritualism was catching on there as well, far 431 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: beyond Young Napoleon's reach. Some French spiritualists even fled the country, 432 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:47,360 Speaker 1: finding refuge beyond its borders, where they continued to turn tables. 433 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,640 Speaker 1: Among them was France's own literary giant, a man who 434 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,480 Speaker 1: shared Charles Dickens interest in the ghosts of the past, present, 435 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:07,680 Speaker 1: and future, a man named Victor Hugo. In eighteen fifty three, 436 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:11,800 Speaker 1: Victor Hugo was in exile when he fled the oppressive 437 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,119 Speaker 1: regime back home, he found a safe place for his 438 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: family in the English Channel on the Isle of Jersey. 439 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 1: Victor's grief over France's squashed revolutions would echo through his 440 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,439 Speaker 1: literature for the rest of his life. Sheltering on the 441 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,000 Speaker 1: island with his family and some of his closest friends, 442 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:32,679 Speaker 1: he struggled to find hope. That September, a visit from 443 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,960 Speaker 1: another Parisian writer prompted him to turn his attention to 444 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:40,120 Speaker 1: the new fire burning across Europe with condemnation from the Church. 445 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: Some French spiritualists and curious friends had taken up table 446 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:48,400 Speaker 1: turning simply for the allure of the forbidden, But Hugo 447 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 1: wasn't just looking for an afternoon of taboo amusement. In fact, 448 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: when he first agreed to a science, nothing happened. If 449 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: he'd only been looking for entertainment, he would have given 450 00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: up right then and there. But Hugo and his friend 451 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,560 Speaker 1: tried seance after seance for weeks on end, despite never 452 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: receiving any message at all. That is until one afternoon 453 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: when the whole Hugo family sat for one final session, 454 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,800 Speaker 1: which Victor's friend described in a later memoir. At first, 455 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 1: things were as silent as ever, but after a few minutes, 456 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: a sharp crack split the air. It was like some 457 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,320 Speaker 1: ancient barrier to the spirit world had finally split open, 458 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,200 Speaker 1: and a new power was ready to flow through. Under 459 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:33,240 Speaker 1: the Hugo family's hands, the table began to tremble. Victor's 460 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: wife and children started wondering aloud, what was happening? Was 461 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: the spirit there in the room? In response, the table 462 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,120 Speaker 1: tilted to one side and started tapping out answers on 463 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: the floor. The spirit identified itself. It was Victor's beloved daughter, 464 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: his favorite child in fact, who had drowned an aboding 465 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 1: accident years before. For Victor, when she passed away, the 466 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 1: future had died with her. But now she was seeking 467 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 1: to him again. Her mother wept. The spirit offered up 468 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:08,160 Speaker 1: memories of beautiful times with the family and answered questions 469 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,480 Speaker 1: that only she would know. Victor's friend, who had also 470 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:13,840 Speaker 1: known the girl, agreed with the rest of the family 471 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:19,040 Speaker 1: that he distinctly felt her presence. The tables tapping reassured 472 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,560 Speaker 1: Victor that his daughter was at peace. She watched over him. 473 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: She saw that he still prayed for her every night, 474 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,600 Speaker 1: and she was grateful. But she had another message for 475 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: her family too, one about politics and power. According to 476 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,760 Speaker 1: the journal of Victor's friend, the spirit went on to 477 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,560 Speaker 1: assure them that Napoleon the thirds Empire would be overthrown 478 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: and the Radical Republic would be restored, so they shouldn't 479 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: give up hope on their vision of a future liberty. 480 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:50,200 Speaker 1: It was exactly the reassurance that Victor needed. After such 481 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: a compelling session, Victor and his family threw themselves into 482 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,160 Speaker 1: seances for the next year. They held them constantly, and 483 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: the results were miraculous. Over the next twelve months, Victor 484 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 1: Hugo received messages from the spirits of all kinds of people, 485 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: not just family members either. Just like Isaac Post messages 486 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,840 Speaker 1: started to come from those he most respected French writers 487 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:17,600 Speaker 1: like playwrights Moliere and Jean Baptiste Racine. Even philosophers and 488 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 1: religious figures stopped by his table to talk. Shakespeare once 489 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,760 Speaker 1: appeared and used the tedious system of table tapping to 490 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:27,200 Speaker 1: dictate the first act of a new play for Victor. 491 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,360 Speaker 1: Jesus himself appeared to him, giving his blessing to their work. 492 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,560 Speaker 1: Here's Emily Clark once again. Spiritualists had a very keen 493 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: sense of history. They were receiving information direct from the source, 494 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,840 Speaker 1: even if that source had died decades centuries before. Spiritualists 495 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: could become part of that story. They could become part 496 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 1: of that story of human progress, even if it was 497 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: just a small group that maybe no one would ever 498 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: hear of them. You know, Benjamin Franklin knew who they were, 499 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,760 Speaker 1: or the spirit it of Benjamin Franklin knew who they were, 500 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:03,680 Speaker 1: and so they got to feel like they were part 501 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: of something so much bigger than themselves. Like the reformers 502 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 1: in Rochester who found guidance and courage in the spirit 503 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: messages from George Washington or William Penn. Victor Hugo found 504 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,200 Speaker 1: hope in the new wave of revelations from his own forebearers. 505 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 1: It was an assurance that things were never too far gone. 506 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 1: His beloved family could be regained, and so could his nation. 507 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,200 Speaker 1: Despite the collapse of the Second Republic, Victor and the 508 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,800 Speaker 1: radicals could be certain that they were on the right 509 00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: side of history. By now, it's clear that spiritualism was 510 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: not just an insignificant historical fad. In Spain, it caught 511 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,960 Speaker 1: the interest of the royal family, and Denmark, a book 512 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: published about Daniel Hume captured the public imagination and provoked 513 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,920 Speaker 1: at least one leading politician into outright obsession. In fact, 514 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:55,000 Speaker 1: it's easy to trot out these details about its rapid spread, 515 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,600 Speaker 1: or about the interests of royal families and famous writers 516 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,920 Speaker 1: to prove that point. But one of the things that's 517 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: so remarkable about spiritualism is what happened in England and 518 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: in Rochester through this movement. People who would otherwise have 519 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: been overlooked. Girls on a country farm and workers in 520 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: a Yorkshire factory were being heard across the world. Take 521 00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: Emma Floyd. She was born to a simple London schoolmaster 522 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,000 Speaker 1: in eight three. When she would later make a name 523 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,400 Speaker 1: for herself, she would write that the neighborhood where she 524 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 1: grew up was the resort of thieves, murderers, and outcasts. 525 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 1: Not an auspicious place to start a life of worldwide renown, 526 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 1: and things only got worse when Emma's father died, the 527 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:41,800 Speaker 1: oldest of four children. It wasn't long before Emma needed 528 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 1: to help support her family to keep them all out 529 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: of the workhouse. Emma later wrote that she was never young, joyous, 530 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:53,000 Speaker 1: or happy. What she did have, though, was music. Like 531 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,680 Speaker 1: Leah Fish, Emma started working life as a music tutor. 532 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 1: She was talented enough, though, that she didn't stick to 533 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,440 Speaker 1: just teaching. Within a year, she was performing publicly on stage, 534 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:05,800 Speaker 1: and that's what brought her to the attention of a 535 00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:08,960 Speaker 1: man named Pierre, the heir to a French piano empire. 536 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,759 Speaker 1: His family had fled the dangers of Paris for the 537 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: safety of England. When he heard Emma play in his 538 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 1: London shop, Pierre offered to loan her an instrument of 539 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:19,719 Speaker 1: her own if she would agree to spend some time 540 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,520 Speaker 1: every day playing in his showroom. It was only a 541 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,840 Speaker 1: matter of time before things had settled down enough for 542 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:28,160 Speaker 1: him to return to Paris and to bring Emma along 543 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: with him. It was a faithful offer because Pierre brought 544 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: something else to his new family's music business, an interest 545 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,880 Speaker 1: in the occult. During the day, Pierre started offering space 546 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,280 Speaker 1: in his shops to a group called the Orphic Circle. 547 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:47,240 Speaker 1: Their rituals included drawing transvisions from sleepwalkers and clairvoyant children. 548 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: In the tradition of French mesmerists, often they wanted someone 549 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,960 Speaker 1: to set the mood. Soon enough, Emma was performing accompaniments 550 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,240 Speaker 1: for their seances. It must have been quite the change 551 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: for Emma. One moment she woul Is working at a 552 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,719 Speaker 1: piano shop to entice visitors to buy expensive instruments, and 553 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:06,560 Speaker 1: the next she was being asked to help a group 554 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:09,279 Speaker 1: of occultists channel spirits from the world of the dead. 555 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,360 Speaker 1: But it didn't take long for the Orphic Circle to 556 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: determine that Emma was a suitable instrument herself. They figured 557 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,160 Speaker 1: out that they could easily magnetize her, and once she 558 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,600 Speaker 1: was in a trance, she could play any piece of 559 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:26,840 Speaker 1: music they wanted on command. For a while, this became 560 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,200 Speaker 1: Emma's routine, but word got back to Emma's mother with 561 00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:33,880 Speaker 1: an ominous tone. Her daughter was trapped in Paris under 562 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: an evil hand, satanic influence, and the physical evidence supported 563 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: their fears. The Orphic Circle was ringing her out like 564 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,560 Speaker 1: an old rag. Injuries from over exertion during trances shredded 565 00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:51,760 Speaker 1: Emma's singing voice. Her mother demanded her return to England, 566 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,439 Speaker 1: where she demanded her to get rest and then find 567 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:57,640 Speaker 1: normal work on the stage again. But Emma would never 568 00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:01,680 Speaker 1: forget the power that had moved through her. So maybe 569 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:04,920 Speaker 1: it's no surprise that when Maria Hayden arrived in London, 570 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:09,040 Speaker 1: Emma soon started to make public appearances alongside her as 571 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,200 Speaker 1: a second medium. Then, in eighteen fifty she would even 572 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:17,359 Speaker 1: sail for America. Following an invitation to perform in one 573 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:22,320 Speaker 1: of the grandest cities in the country, Emma was headed 574 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:31,719 Speaker 1: to Broadway. Before we move forward, we need to take 575 00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:35,560 Speaker 1: a step back back, before Kate and Maggie Fox held 576 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:39,320 Speaker 1: a seance in Rochester, before Cora Scott filled that blank 577 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,799 Speaker 1: slate with other worldly writing, Before Emma sat at the 578 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,919 Speaker 1: Orphic Circle's piano. Before all of that, there was bell 579 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: and like the girls we've met so far, she would 580 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,279 Speaker 1: come to carry the mantle of modern spiritualism into the 581 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:58,280 Speaker 1: eighteen fifties. Here's Margaret Washington, professor of History and American 582 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:02,680 Speaker 1: Studies at Cornell Universe City. As she would say, she 583 00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: was practicing it before she even knew that there was 584 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:11,879 Speaker 1: something called spiritualism. Bell was born in the same land 585 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: where Andrew Jackson Davis would grow up in the eighteen twenties. 586 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:18,640 Speaker 1: But Bell was older than Andrew too, and her experience 587 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,799 Speaker 1: of life in the Hudson Valley couldn't have been more 588 00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:24,759 Speaker 1: different than his. She was born sometime just before the 589 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,560 Speaker 1: year eighteen hundred, but the dates isn't recorded. You see 590 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,680 Speaker 1: right there in New York. Bell was born into slavery. 591 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:36,359 Speaker 1: Here's Margaret Washington again, she would say, and actually she 592 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,440 Speaker 1: did say that when she was born, there were no ships, 593 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,560 Speaker 1: there were no steamboats. It was a whole different world. 594 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: If you can imagine living in rural Hudson Valley, New 595 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 1: York in the wintertime and not having shoes. That was 596 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,759 Speaker 1: the fate of the enslaved African Dutch people where she 597 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,759 Speaker 1: grew up, and that was pretty much her fate. Bell 598 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: was never educated as a child. She never went to church, 599 00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:04,920 Speaker 1: but Belle's mother gave her a deep sense of faith 600 00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: that was a mixture of pious Dutch Calvinism and the 601 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,560 Speaker 1: traditions of her African heritage, and even from a very 602 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:15,120 Speaker 1: young age, Bell had a second sense, clare of voyance 603 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 1: that seemed to guide her through life. And it was 604 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:21,279 Speaker 1: through people like Bell that African spirituality would come to 605 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:28,960 Speaker 1: be another major influence on American spiritualism. Spiritualism has interesting 606 00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:33,880 Speaker 1: connections to what we call africanity. The idea of people 607 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 1: connecting to the other world was something that Africans took 608 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,000 Speaker 1: as just common. I mean, that's just the way it was. 609 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: There really was no break between the earthly life and 610 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:51,800 Speaker 1: the life of the beyond. One of the formative experiences 611 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,239 Speaker 1: for Bell, the one that confirmed her spiritual sensitivity and 612 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 1: set the course for her life in motion, was the 613 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,759 Speaker 1: death of her beloved father, James. James had been the 614 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,960 Speaker 1: headman for a powerful landowning family who for a time 615 00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,560 Speaker 1: owned two million acres of land in New York. But 616 00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:11,160 Speaker 1: as James got older and could no longer work, they 617 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,000 Speaker 1: left him to fend for himself when he went blind, 618 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,240 Speaker 1: though there was little he could do to care for himself, 619 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,160 Speaker 1: after all, most of his children had been sold away 620 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,640 Speaker 1: from New York. When she could slip away, Bell would 621 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:24,440 Speaker 1: do what she could to care for him, but it 622 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,840 Speaker 1: was hardly enough unable to build himself a fire. A 623 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 1: cold New York winter froze his isolated cabin and killed him. 624 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: When he died, the White family offered to provide a funeral. 625 00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,600 Speaker 1: The funeral consisted of this pine box and lots of rum, 626 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:45,560 Speaker 1: and that was basically sort of a high falutint funeral 627 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:49,920 Speaker 1: for a slave. For Bell, it was so disgusting. She 628 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:54,239 Speaker 1: remembered that, and she took comfort in the feeling that 629 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,080 Speaker 1: came over her afterwards, and it stayed with her the 630 00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,919 Speaker 1: rest of her life. It was the sense of her father, 631 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:05,640 Speaker 1: his guiding presence. She always said that throughout her life 632 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:09,640 Speaker 1: she and her father talked to each other. She maintained 633 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:15,359 Speaker 1: that she was channeling her father on many occasions. That 634 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 1: was very important to her. He was her shining light. 635 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 1: She makes us very clear in her narrative how important 636 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:25,799 Speaker 1: he was to her. So from the time that she 637 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,840 Speaker 1: was young, Belle would turn to spirit voices when things 638 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,560 Speaker 1: became difficult, whether it was the spirit of her father, 639 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,839 Speaker 1: her shining light, or the Holy Spirit of God. One 640 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,879 Speaker 1: of those difficult days came on July eighteen seven, when 641 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,200 Speaker 1: the man who enslaved her broke his promise you see, 642 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,120 Speaker 1: he had struck a deal with Bell the year before. 643 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,520 Speaker 1: She'd been his captive for eighteen years, but he told 644 00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:51,160 Speaker 1: Bell that if she and her partner worked especially hard, 645 00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:55,040 Speaker 1: they would earn their freedom. When the day came, though, 646 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:57,680 Speaker 1: he laughed in her face. He claimed that she hadn't 647 00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:00,600 Speaker 1: kept her side of the bargain, despite years of his 648 00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:04,080 Speaker 1: bragging to others about her strength and stamina, saying and 649 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:08,600 Speaker 1: I quote, she's better to me than a man. Furious 650 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:14,319 Speaker 1: with frustration, Bell looked for direction. She had created a 651 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:18,000 Speaker 1: little island in the middle of the river, and that 652 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,160 Speaker 1: was where she would go and talk to God. She 653 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:23,320 Speaker 1: went to her little island area and she asked God 654 00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:26,320 Speaker 1: what she should do because he had broken his promise. 655 00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:30,920 Speaker 1: And God told her she should leave, And she said, well, 656 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,240 Speaker 1: how can I leave? They'll see me? And God told 657 00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:39,640 Speaker 1: her to leave. Just before daybreak, when everyone was still asleep, 658 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,279 Speaker 1: the household woke up to find the kitchen empty. Bell 659 00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,960 Speaker 1: was gone. She had walked away from her enslavement with 660 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,720 Speaker 1: her infant child in her arms. It was her first 661 00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:55,880 Speaker 1: step towards becoming one of the most powerful and popular 662 00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:59,560 Speaker 1: spiritualist preachers in the decades leading up to the Civil War. 663 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,480 Speaker 1: She was on her way to becoming a guiding light 664 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:05,920 Speaker 1: for the abolitionist movement and a clear voice that called 665 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:09,400 Speaker 1: the nation to live up to its promises, and it 666 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,800 Speaker 1: was her first step toward becoming the woman that changed 667 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:17,760 Speaker 1: the face of America, a woman that we know today 668 00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:25,600 Speaker 1: as Sojourner Truth. That's it for this week's episode of Unobscured. 669 00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,480 Speaker 1: Stick around after this short sponsor break for a preview 670 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:35,080 Speaker 1: of what's in store for next week. Next time on Unobscured. 671 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,600 Speaker 1: Bell would later talk about these divisions in New York 672 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:43,680 Speaker 1: as a spiritual contest like the one between Babylon and Israel, 673 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,840 Speaker 1: a contest for the soul of the nation. But for 674 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,879 Speaker 1: too many women like Bell, that fight was not just 675 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:54,240 Speaker 1: a metaphor. Her story makes clear what was at stake 676 00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:56,200 Speaker 1: in the battles she would fight for the rest of 677 00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,680 Speaker 1: her life, whether the next generation of black Americans would 678 00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:02,600 Speaker 1: continue you to be shuffled from bondage to bondage for 679 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:06,520 Speaker 1: the profits of powerful slaveholders, or whether black families would 680 00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:10,240 Speaker 1: be able to break the system of channel slavery. Rebell 681 00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:15,480 Speaker 1: The fight was as personal as it gets, but Bell 682 00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:19,840 Speaker 1: didn't struggle alone. Together with her friends and the anti 683 00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: slavery societies of the Northeast, including those in Rochester. She 684 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:29,320 Speaker 1: became part of something bigger, a movement, a driving force 685 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:34,720 Speaker 1: of radicalism and revolution, a force that was all too 686 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:58,000 Speaker 1: familiar to someone else, the Spiritualists. Unobscured was created by 687 00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,640 Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky and produced by Frederick, Alex Williams and 688 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:05,480 Speaker 1: Josh Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio. Research and 689 00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:07,600 Speaker 1: writing for this season is all the work of my 690 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,720 Speaker 1: right hand man Carl Nellis and the brilliant Chad Lawson 691 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:15,279 Speaker 1: composed the brand new soundtrack. Learn more about our contributing historians, 692 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,560 Speaker 1: source material and links to our other shows over at 693 00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:23,520 Speaker 1: History unobscured dot com and until next time, thanks for 694 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:33,360 Speaker 1: listening Unobscured as a production of I Heart Radio and 695 00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,919 Speaker 1: Aaron Monkey. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit 696 00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:38,479 Speaker 1: the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 697 00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:39,400 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.