1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minky. 2 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: Summer arrived without a thaw. Elisha and his crew suffered 3 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,599 Speaker 1: the teeth of ice through June, then through July, and 4 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: on into the darkening fall. Winter was coming again, though 5 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: for these lost explorers it had never really left. The 6 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: men were trapped, stranded and alone in a frozen cove 7 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: off the northwest coast of Greenland. In his published writings, 8 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 1: Elisha seemed like a stalwart voice of reason in the 9 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: midst of a crew who were spooked by shadows. But 10 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:50,040 Speaker 1: his private diary tells a different tale. In the days 11 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: after Elishah rebuked his men for ghost hunting on the ice, 12 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: he had his own series of visions that left him 13 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: shot waking dreams, he called them, and they were intense. 14 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: One minute, he wrote, he was on the frozen ship. 15 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: Next though, he was transported back to his family home, 16 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: right into the dining room, and the whole family was 17 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: gathered around the table, feasting and laughing. He would have 18 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 1: held onto that vision as long as he could, but 19 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:18,319 Speaker 1: it seemed like a trance that was out of his hands. 20 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: Until that is a few days later, when he was 21 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 1: trying to build a fire, and a strange glow, like 22 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: a spirit light, surrounded his hand in the darkness. He 23 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,960 Speaker 1: wondered if this was the end, if he was preparing 24 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: to cross over into the spirit world. In the end, 25 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,559 Speaker 1: Elisha and his men only survived the unrelenting cold because 26 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,960 Speaker 1: they began to meet Inuits who lived in Greenland's icy heart. 27 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: The local people found the men trapped on their ship 28 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: and started to trade them the supplies of food they 29 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: needed to endure. Some of Elisha's crew quit the expedition 30 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: altogether and their old lives to go live with the 31 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: Inuits permanently instead. Eventually, Alisha gave into the realization that 32 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: clinging to his mission would only leave him on a 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: dark threshold to death. Store setting aside his pride, he 34 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: and his remaining men finally abandoned the ship, but they 35 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: were far from clear. Their journey would take them overland 36 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: for more than one thousand miles. Along the way, they 37 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,119 Speaker 1: were helped by more indigenous people. They fed Elisha's men 38 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: and even stepped in to drag the whaling boats that 39 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: Elisha's crew were using as sledges, each filled with heavy supplies. 40 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: It wasn't until August of eighteen fifty five, after twenty 41 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 1: seven months of travel, that Elisha and his remaining crew 42 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: were picked up by another ship on Greenland's south coast. 43 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,960 Speaker 1: When he sailed back toward the United States, he knew 44 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: he was leaving members of his crew behind him in Greenland, 45 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: both alive and dead. Back in New York, he was 46 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: welcomed as a hero, and the public clamored around him. 47 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,000 Speaker 1: Of course, there was someone else he wanted to see, though, 48 00:02:57,320 --> 00:02:59,839 Speaker 1: and she wanted to see him. But it took two 49 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: days for him to fight through the press to finally 50 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: reach Maggie's side. All the while, rumors about their not 51 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 1: so secret engagement began to enrage Elisha's wealthy family. Speculation 52 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: about their relationship had been published in the New York papers, 53 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: The Post, The Express, and The Times, among others, and 54 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: none of it made the Cane family happy, so they 55 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,799 Speaker 1: resolved to throw their weight into separating the newly reunited pair. 56 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: Maggie would later write that seeing Elisha again after two 57 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: years was joyous and passionate, and when the Canes leaned 58 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,040 Speaker 1: on Maggie's family, the other Foxes started once again to 59 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: beg Elisha to leave her alone. In response, he retreated 60 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: to Philadelphia, but he did visit New York as often 61 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: as he could. Maggie held on as best as she 62 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: was able. She still didn't rejoin Leah and Kate seances 63 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: and continued to study with Elisha's friends, hoping she might 64 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: yet earn his family's approval. For his part, Elisha feed 65 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: wishly worked on his next book about the recent journey, 66 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: already under contract with the Philadelphia publisher, the time was 67 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: stretching on. Eventually, Elisha was tired of waiting for his 68 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: family's approval. On an afternoon in September of eighteen fifty six, 69 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: when Elisha was visiting Maggie in New York, he sent 70 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: a call throughout the house. He summoned Kate to the 71 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 1: parlor where he and Maggie had been talking, and then 72 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: he called for Mrs Fox as well. Even the household 73 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,279 Speaker 1: staff were requested. Once they had all crowded into the parlor, 74 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: Elisha lined them up. Then he took Maggie by the 75 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:38,679 Speaker 1: hand and made a pronouncement. He and Maggie were husband 76 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: and wife, and they declared their love for each other 77 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: right there in front of all of them, And that 78 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: was that Their common law. Marriage was sealed after that night. 79 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: Elisha's letters were filled with endearments to his wife, Calling 80 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,840 Speaker 1: Maggie Mrs Kane, he showered her with diamonds. The two 81 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: still lived apart for the time being, but he had 82 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: survived Arctic ordeal and they wouldn't be stopped from enjoying 83 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: his return. Despite his best efforts, though anxiety started to 84 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: creep in. You see, Elisha wasn't feeling very well. He 85 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: told Maggie not to worry, that he had written her 86 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: into his will just in case. Besides, his aches and 87 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: pains were nothing compared to living apart from her. The 88 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,559 Speaker 1: pain at the center of their marriage may have felt 89 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 1: cruel and unusual to Elisha and Maggie, There's no doubt 90 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,919 Speaker 1: about that. I think any of us could sympathize. But 91 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: it paled in comparison to the marriages of other mediums 92 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,919 Speaker 1: in the spiritualist community. For them, life was an endless 93 00:05:41,960 --> 00:06:28,720 Speaker 1: parade of suffering. This is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. Still 94 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: just sixteen, Victoria found herself in a constant battle to 95 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: keep both her husband and her young son alive. She 96 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: lived in Chicago, but the city never felt like home. 97 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,800 Speaker 1: And her time there had left her with scars. For 98 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 1: one thing, leaving Pennsylvania hadn't stopped her husband, Canning's carousing. 99 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,919 Speaker 1: In fact, he'd been drunk when Victoria delivered their baby, Byron, 100 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,800 Speaker 1: in a house so cold that one of her biographers 101 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:57,919 Speaker 1: described the icicles clinging to her bed post while she 102 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: was in labor. In the following days, she nearly died. 103 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 1: It was only thanks to the quick and caring intervention 104 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: of a neighbor and then a fortunate visit from her 105 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: mother that Victoria made it through alive. Canning barely worked, 106 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: although if we're honest, that was probably for the best. 107 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: What his potential patients really needed was a real doctor. 108 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: But Canning's hard living meant Victoria and the baby were 109 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: often left hungry. Victoria turned back to holding seances, but 110 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 1: it just wasn't enough not to mention that Chicago was 111 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: still a bit too close to her father Buck. Here's 112 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: author Mary Gabriel. She couldn't continue as a spiritualist and 113 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,679 Speaker 1: make the kind of money she needed to support Canning, 114 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: Byron and her entire family, and in fact, by this 115 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: point she wanted to get rid of her family because 116 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: Buck had had some more run ins with the law, 117 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: and Victoria was old enough now to realize that he 118 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:59,160 Speaker 1: was a scoundrel and always would be. Victoria knew she 119 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,800 Speaker 1: couldn't go on having like this, so she aimed her 120 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: sites where so many others had before, to the West. 121 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: Anyone as frost bitten and weighed down as Victoria must 122 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: have at least considered the desperate move that she was 123 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 1: about to make. In a bid to inspire her husband 124 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: to start a new life, she loaded him and their 125 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:24,720 Speaker 1: son onto a steamship, their destination san Francisco. Now, if 126 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: Chicago had been boisterous and full of vices to trip 127 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: up Canning, well, san Francisco was downright bedlam. After gold 128 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 1: had been discovered in California, the state's population of white 129 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: settlers had balloon from fifteen thousand to over three hundred thousand, 130 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,440 Speaker 1: all in the span of just seven years, and San 131 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:47,959 Speaker 1: Francisco was at the heart of that change. In ety eight, 132 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,560 Speaker 1: there were roughly four hundred residents camping in the muddy 133 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: marshes around the Bay. But that was the year that 134 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 1: President James K. Polk stood before Congress and confirmed the 135 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: rumors he held up fourteen pounds of gold in his 136 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: hand and asked his fellow Americans to become colonists again, 137 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: to go west, to settle down there, and to raid 138 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:11,559 Speaker 1: the soil for riches. The message was loud, clear, and compelling. 139 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:15,239 Speaker 1: By the middle of the eighteen fifties, San Francisco's population 140 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: had grown from four hundred to forty thousand. One young 141 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: observer published a book that was critical of the boosterism 142 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,440 Speaker 1: that San Francisco got in the press. In one of 143 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: his most famous passages, he wrote, I have seen pure liquors, 144 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: better cigars, truer pistols, larger bowie knives, and prettier courtesan's 145 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: here than in any other places I have visited. It 146 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:42,920 Speaker 1: is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish 147 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: the best bad things that are obtainable in America. Of course, 148 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: if this account was meant to drive treasure and pleasure 149 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: hunters away from California and had the opposite effect. So 150 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: by the time Victoria arrived with her family in tow, 151 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: the city had already begun to rise. Here's Mary Gabriel again, 152 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: with a deeper look. She broke away and went to 153 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: the one place that promised, possibly the hope that caning 154 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: could in fact resurrect some kind of medical career in 155 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,520 Speaker 1: a in a town like San Francisco, which was barely 156 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 1: discernible as a town. It was just beginning to have 157 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: cobble stone streets. It was a place where I think 158 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: that the ratio of men was ten to one, ten 159 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: men to one woman. It was lawless. It was the 160 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:33,320 Speaker 1: main motivation for people. There was self enrichment. That was 161 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: the only thing that drove them. But if Victoria heard 162 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:42,119 Speaker 1: there was opportunity in San Francisco for women, she wasn't misled. 163 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: Women were opening clothing stores, restaurants, hotels, theaters, brothels, and laundries, 164 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: all catering to the flood of California's new fortune seekers. 165 00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:54,679 Speaker 1: One woman, who didn't have the money to pay her 166 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: fair west, took the journey on credit, opened a hotel 167 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,480 Speaker 1: in San Francisco when she got there, and paid back 168 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:03,599 Speaker 1: seven hundred dollars to her drivers six weeks later, and 169 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: she was soon making five thousand dollars a week, equal 170 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: to about one fifty dollars today. It was more than 171 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,520 Speaker 1: five hundred times the weekly pay of a woman working 172 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: in a Massachusetts silk mill. San Francisco was a gold 173 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: mine for white settlers in more ways than one. But 174 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,199 Speaker 1: for as canny as Victoria was, she didn't have that 175 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,800 Speaker 1: kind of business acumen. What she did have, though, was beauty, ambition, 176 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:34,200 Speaker 1: and tenacity, so she did find work. She answered an 177 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,679 Speaker 1: advertisement for a cigar girl in a CD saloon and 178 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 1: was put to work behind the counter immediately, but she 179 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: didn't keep the position long. Here's Mary Gabriel once again. 180 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: There was one area called the Barbary Coast, which is 181 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 1: where it's most notorious. Early early claim to fame was 182 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,400 Speaker 1: where the tapless waitress was born, and the story is 183 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: that the proprietor told her she was too fine to 184 00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:59,800 Speaker 1: do that kind of work, which is essentially, no doubt 185 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:05,280 Speaker 1: probaly some kind of form of prostitution. When Victoria refused 186 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,040 Speaker 1: to play along, the saloon keeper center on her way, 187 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:10,800 Speaker 1: remarking that she would need to rough it if she 188 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 1: was going to make a living in his part of town. 189 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 1: He must have taken some pity on her, though, because 190 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: he sent her off with a twenty dollar gold piece. 191 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:21,439 Speaker 1: It was enough to give Victoria a moment to breathe 192 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: and rethink her options, finally deciding to see if she 193 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: could snare more income. Using her skill with a needle 194 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,400 Speaker 1: and thread, she started going door to door offering to 195 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:34,000 Speaker 1: work as a seamstress, and her services were thankfully met 196 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 1: with some demand. One afternoon, though, one of her clients 197 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,559 Speaker 1: interrupted Victoria's work. She and the woman, an actress named Anna, 198 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: had become friends. During their long afternoons spent fitting and 199 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: fixing stagewear for the evening performance, and Victoria told her 200 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 1: new friend that she was making only about three dollars 201 00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: a week, barely enough to keep the family afloat. Between 202 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 1: caring for Byron, room and board at the hotel and 203 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 1: Canning's constant donations to the wishing well at the bottom 204 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: of every pint glass, Victoria was always running short. Anna 205 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: had a better idea. She urged Victoria to become an actress, 206 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,319 Speaker 1: and then practically hauled her onto the stage. Now, maybe 207 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: Victoria was able to draw on her experiences as a medium, 208 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: or perhaps she was just a quick study. Either way, 209 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,880 Speaker 1: she was instantly able to command her parts. Like Emma 210 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: before her. She had moved from the seance table to 211 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: the stage. Back in the spotlight, Victoria thrived, and more 212 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,559 Speaker 1: than that, her first week on stage earned her fifty 213 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: two dollars about fifteen hundred today, and after all she'd 214 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,440 Speaker 1: been through, I can't help but imagine that she sighed 215 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: with relief. Finally there was something new on the horizon. Hope, 216 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 1: Victoria and others weren't the only ones to travel. Soon enough, 217 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: even the spirits were criss crossing the nation. And it's 218 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 1: no surprise why. For Americans who wanted to imagine their 219 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: nation as expansive as the land it inhabited, the idea 220 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: of the West was a place to hang their hopes. 221 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:20,720 Speaker 1: While spiritualism had been growing and spreading, so too was 222 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: the idea that the United States had a manifest destiny 223 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,720 Speaker 1: to take over every inch of land on the continent, 224 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: which brings us back to the writers and historians we 225 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: talked about in the last episode. Men like George Bancroft 226 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: and William Cullen Bryant. Remember bold visionaries like sojourn or 227 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: Truth and Aidan Blue were calling the nation to be remade. 228 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: They knew that America had inner demons to battle before 229 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: it would live up to their ideals. But Bancroft and 230 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,520 Speaker 1: Bryant saw things a different way, and we could add 231 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:54,200 Speaker 1: other people to that list as well, including a man 232 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: named Walt Whitman. Like William Cullen Bryant, Walt Whitman was 233 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:02,520 Speaker 1: a poet who had turned his literary power to journalism 234 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: as well. He edited his own newspaper in New York 235 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,600 Speaker 1: called the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He liked to think that 236 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: he was every bit of visionary as writers like Frederick Douglas. 237 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: But let's take a look at the actual shape of 238 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:18,560 Speaker 1: his vision. Buckle up, though, because sadly it gets ugly. 239 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:21,720 Speaker 1: But don't take my word for it. His own words 240 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: were damning enough when it came to taking land women, 241 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: claimed that the energy of European settlers made them a 242 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: superior grade to everyone else on the continent. Again, his words, 243 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: not mine. In his view, the violence that had been 244 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: visited upon the native people's in the land between the 245 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:44,000 Speaker 1: Rockies and the Pacific was only natural. The strong prey 246 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: on the week, he said, and they also take the gold. 247 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: That was his view. The historian Bancroft felt the same way. 248 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: He wrote that human progress always went westward, Crossing the 249 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: Atlantic was a final great stride. He thought that America 250 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,920 Speaker 1: was the peak of some realization, and that progress had 251 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: reached its highest point in the institutions of the United States. Thus, 252 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:11,520 Speaker 1: somehow he argued that the extermination of Native people was necessary. 253 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:13,880 Speaker 1: In fact, he wrote that anyone who did not accept 254 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:19,360 Speaker 1: white mastery was marked by destiny for destruction. The evil 255 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: in that view was pretty thorough. I know. It was 256 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: also a fairly common among literary and political circles in 257 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 1: New York at the time, But it also provided an 258 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: excuse for the long history of genocide that had recently 259 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:36,200 Speaker 1: included Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policies. We can see how 260 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: sojourn or truth would point it out as a troubling 261 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: national sin, with writers like Bancroft and Whitman driving the 262 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: conversation in the eighteen fifties. It should come as no 263 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 1: surprise that when gold was discovered in California, white settlers 264 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 1: marched west in unprecedented numbers, weapons in toe. Even the 265 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: water route to California was carved open. Under that kind 266 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,720 Speaker 1: of thinking, there was so much money to be made. 267 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: Attitudes like these and the thinking that motivated them, convinced 268 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,760 Speaker 1: reformers like Aidan Blue that the nation needed reinventing. He 269 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:14,920 Speaker 1: was preaching against greed, against slavery, and against war when 270 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,399 Speaker 1: the United States invaded Mexico in the eighteen forties, and 271 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 1: there was no mistaking that these ideas came from the 272 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,160 Speaker 1: spirit world to push back against the powers of this one. 273 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:30,200 Speaker 1: Here's historian John Busher Blou was by that time giving 274 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:35,119 Speaker 1: sermons to his followers in a sort of elevated trance state, 275 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: supposedly under the direction of spirits, because there were rappings 276 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,399 Speaker 1: going on all around the room. But after ten years 277 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: of spirit communications, things in Hopedale were still on rocky ground. 278 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,359 Speaker 1: In fact, despite being one of the brightest beacons of 279 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: the reform movement, hope Dale had actually begun to flounder. 280 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,239 Speaker 1: Aidan Blue had hoped that his son Augustus might one 281 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,080 Speaker 1: day take over as the leader of their community. The 282 00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:03,320 Speaker 1: young man's death might not have ended his speeches, after all, 283 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:05,879 Speaker 1: Cora and others had begun to channel his voice for 284 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:08,359 Speaker 1: the rest of the community, but it wasn't the same 285 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: as having the young man's energetic presence. Then there was 286 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,640 Speaker 1: the financial side of things. When Cora and her father 287 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,880 Speaker 1: came back from Wisconsin without having established a new outpost 288 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,880 Speaker 1: for their community, its residents fell to fighting over limited resources. 289 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,120 Speaker 1: You see, hope Dale had been established as a joint 290 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:30,160 Speaker 1: stock company, but by eighteen fifty five, one relatively new 291 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,880 Speaker 1: member of the group had managed to collect three fourths 292 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 1: of the company. This man's brother had also been a 293 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,679 Speaker 1: long standing follower of Aiden's, and the pair worked to 294 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,120 Speaker 1: pile up the ownership of the community. Then they threatened 295 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:45,919 Speaker 1: to withdraw and bankrupt the rest of them. That is, 296 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: of course, unless the other leaders gave them total control 297 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:53,320 Speaker 1: over hope Dale's silk business. With no other choice, Aiden 298 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,520 Speaker 1: and the others folded. Of course, the new kingpin promised 299 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:58,960 Speaker 1: that all the residents could stay. They could still bring 300 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:02,040 Speaker 1: in new relatives, go to the community church and teach 301 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: in the local school, and they could keep working in 302 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: his silk mill. Naturally, but the character of the place 303 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:13,000 Speaker 1: had changed. Once it had been a Christian socialist commune, 304 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,960 Speaker 1: Now though it was nothing more than a company town. 305 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:21,119 Speaker 1: Aiden had lost his model community. He'd set out to 306 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:25,520 Speaker 1: remake the face of the nation. Instead, that nation had 307 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:32,480 Speaker 1: crept in and taken control. Aidan Blues experiment in optimism 308 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:49,119 Speaker 1: was over. It felt new, but that wasn't entirely true. 309 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,919 Speaker 1: What the spiritualists created in the eighteen fifties was actually 310 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:56,600 Speaker 1: made from pieces snipped out of older fabric. In her book, 311 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,160 Speaker 1: Kathy Goodierres called spiritualism the frontiers spirit brought to bear 312 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,800 Speaker 1: on the afterlife. That's more true than we have yet explored. 313 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,720 Speaker 1: We talked about Swedenborg and the Shakers in the first 314 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:11,760 Speaker 1: episode of this season. Then with Sojourn or Truth, we 315 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,520 Speaker 1: saw the influence of African spirituality, even when they didn't 316 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,360 Speaker 1: always put it in these terms. It's clear the spiritualists 317 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,920 Speaker 1: knew how much they were taking from non European spirit beliefs. 318 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: But from the beginning, one thing that was definitely knew 319 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:30,040 Speaker 1: about American spiritualism was the appearance of Native American ghosts. 320 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 1: Here's Historian and Browdie spirit guides. Indian spirit guides are 321 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: part of a longer American tradition that dates back long 322 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: before the spiritualist religion emerges in the eighteen forties. There 323 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: is this ability in American culture to espouse positive views 324 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:58,880 Speaker 1: about Native Americans at the same time that one assumes 325 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:02,000 Speaker 1: that they are people of the past who are dying 326 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:06,920 Speaker 1: away and who are appropriately part of the past that 327 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:11,880 Speaker 1: is part of the land of the spirits. In New York. 328 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,240 Speaker 1: Emma noticed this right away as she left her Broadway 329 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 1: career to become a medium full time. She observed that 330 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 1: Native spirits played a prominent role in the seances of 331 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: American spiritualists. She would later write that nearly every medium 332 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:30,119 Speaker 1: is attended by a Native spirit. She expressed the opinions 333 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,120 Speaker 1: of many American spiritualists when she wrote that those spirits 334 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:38,520 Speaker 1: were kind and generous. They were guides for the white spiritualists, counseling, protecting, 335 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 1: and using their knowledge of herbs to suggest rare cures 336 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,560 Speaker 1: for diseases. Her way of talking about Native nations in 337 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,440 Speaker 1: some way echoes what Alisha wrote about the Inuit people 338 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,439 Speaker 1: he met in Greenland. But like most spiritualists, both of 339 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:56,159 Speaker 1: these writers saw Indigenous Americans as the supporting cast for 340 00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: stories of white exploration and white healing. Sadly, Emma's writing 341 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,800 Speaker 1: describes the beliefs and practices of Native nations as bygone relics, 342 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: resources to be mined by white mediums that would otherwise 343 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,679 Speaker 1: be buried in the past, and in doing so, she 344 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,960 Speaker 1: ignored the suffering and the strength of Native nations across 345 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: the United States. In a sense, it showed the ways 346 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 1: that spiritualism had absorbed, rather than reformed, the American imagination. 347 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,159 Speaker 1: Cora's spirit lectures played apart in spreading this style of revelation. 348 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty one, when she was still living in Wisconsin, 349 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,560 Speaker 1: receiving spirit messages from Augustus Belu and healing the sick, 350 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:38,639 Speaker 1: there was a third spirit that became one of her controls. 351 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:44,160 Speaker 1: Here's John Busher once again. I think the first spirit 352 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:49,080 Speaker 1: control that she had was the son of Aiden Blue, 353 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: Aidan Augustus Blue, who died early in his life. She 354 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:59,200 Speaker 1: also had it developed a series of Indian spirit controls. 355 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,879 Speaker 1: One of them was named Weena. One of them was 356 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 1: named Shannandoah. There were a bunch of those as well. 357 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: As Cora grew in prominence, Weena continued speaking. Her story 358 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,400 Speaker 1: is part and parcel of American spiritualism's influence, and when 359 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,560 Speaker 1: Cora had her fateful confrontation with J. J. Mapes in 360 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four, the first spirit control to speak to 361 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 1: the scientist was Shenandoah. Cora and other spiritualists didn't always 362 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:30,640 Speaker 1: have relationships with Indigenous people, though, in fact, in many 363 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: of these trances, the native spirit guides sound very much 364 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,639 Speaker 1: like the white fantasies coming from the fiction of the time. 365 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:43,840 Speaker 1: Here's more on that from Ann Browdie. Spiritualists participate in 366 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:51,159 Speaker 1: ideas about romantic ideas about Indians that have already begun 367 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:57,560 Speaker 1: to develop and are developing in American literature. Indian guides 368 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,760 Speaker 1: of mediums often just scribe a place they describe as 369 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 1: the summer Land, a land of natural beauty and an 370 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: undisturbed natural land where Indians live in peace and harmony 371 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: as to white people, and where there is no conflict 372 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:21,160 Speaker 1: between the indigenous inhabitants and those who have displaced them. 373 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:27,680 Speaker 1: So spiritualists participate in the fantasy that Indigenous America and 374 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:32,359 Speaker 1: a European dominated America can live in harmony and can 375 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,359 Speaker 1: be part of the same spiritual vision. But that's a 376 00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:42,639 Speaker 1: fantasy in some cases, though, where Cora spoke for the 377 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 1: spirit of someone familiar to an audience member, it didn't 378 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: always go so well. Once in Boston, she gave a 379 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: trans lecture from the spirit of a well known Boston abolitionist, 380 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: and one of the dead Man's friends protested. Afterward. He 381 00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: wrote a scathing letter to the newspaper saying that Cora 382 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: wasn't channeling a genuine spirit, but rather than I quote, 383 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,639 Speaker 1: confiscating and misusing the man's name and ideas. He wrote 384 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: that Cora's lecture was nothing but a mash of false quotations, 385 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 1: words which he never used, and ideas which he never thought. 386 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 1: If that was how some people responded to Cora's speaking 387 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,480 Speaker 1: in the voice of people they knew, we can only 388 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 1: imagine what an actual Native American audience might have thought 389 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: of her use of Weenaw and Shenandoah. But we do 390 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 1: know one thing. To her audience in Boston, she was 391 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:43,400 Speaker 1: no better than an actress on a stage. Victoria made 392 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: a splash. The members of her San Francisco acting troops 393 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,600 Speaker 1: said that there was a simplicity about her that was 394 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: very convincing, charming, even she somehow managed to convey a 395 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: powerful spirituality from the stage. Indeed, just as Victoria had 396 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,920 Speaker 1: not managed to outrun Canning's thirst, neither had she outrun 397 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:07,280 Speaker 1: the spirits. One night, when Victoria was playing a part 398 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,120 Speaker 1: in an adaptation of an Alexander Dumas story in which twins, 399 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: although separated at birth, continued to fill each other's pain, 400 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,720 Speaker 1: something about the play broke through Victoria's mind, her soul, 401 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 1: and her spirit. Later in life, one of her friends 402 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 1: would write that Victoria was so overcome with emotion that 403 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,919 Speaker 1: night that she plunged into a trance. Her vision was 404 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: open to the spirit world, and she was transported away 405 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,160 Speaker 1: from the stage. When things came into focus around her, 406 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,400 Speaker 1: she saw her younger sister Tennessee, along with her mother. 407 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,360 Speaker 1: They were looking out a window over Ohio's hills, and 408 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:46,240 Speaker 1: both were calling on Victoria to come home. As the 409 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 1: story goes, she bolted from the stage, still dressed in 410 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: the pink silk dress and slippers of her costumes. She 411 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: ran through a foggy rain back to her hotel. Then 412 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,959 Speaker 1: she packed up their few belongings, dragged Canning out of 413 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: whatever watering he was in at the time, and bundled 414 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: Byron up for a journey. The very next morning, she 415 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: loaded them onto a steamship and began that long journey 416 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:12,879 Speaker 1: back to New York. Victoria's trip home from the West 417 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,200 Speaker 1: sounds like the trip Cora took up through the Erie 418 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,440 Speaker 1: Canal a few years before. Under the power of spirits. 419 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,359 Speaker 1: All the way throughout the voyage, Victoria experienced such vivid 420 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,760 Speaker 1: trances that she created a profound excitement among the passengers. 421 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: At least that's what her biographer wrote. But if the 422 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,160 Speaker 1: next phase of her career is any indication. She also 423 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:36,159 Speaker 1: found herself growing in power as she spoke to the 424 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,080 Speaker 1: passengers and the crew. She said she could tell, just 425 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: by inspiration from the spirits, what their names were, where 426 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,679 Speaker 1: their homes were located, and what their maladies were. Like 427 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,399 Speaker 1: other spiritualists of the age, Victoria had become the healer 428 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: that her husband never was. Soon enough, the steamer returned 429 00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,240 Speaker 1: to its homeport in New York, and then Victoria continued 430 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 1: on to Ohio. Her future in New York City would 431 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,840 Speaker 1: have to wait. When she arrived home and flew into 432 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,400 Speaker 1: her sister's arms, she told her the story of her 433 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: on stage vision. Amazingly, Tennessee was wearing the same striped 434 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 1: French calico frock that Victoria had seen in the vision. 435 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,480 Speaker 1: Their mother offered a smile, but there was no surprise there. 436 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,080 Speaker 1: On the day that Victoria had been shocked out of 437 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 1: her performance and back to her family, Anna claims that 438 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,480 Speaker 1: she had commanded Tennessee to send the spirits after Victoria 439 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:32,200 Speaker 1: and bring her home. Looking back, it seems to have worked. 440 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: Reunited by the work of the spirits, the sisters set 441 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,200 Speaker 1: out on a new chapter, away from her home and family. 442 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,560 Speaker 1: Victoria had found the vision and courage within herself to 443 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,320 Speaker 1: chart her own course rather than be directed by the 444 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 1: predatory and hairbrained schemes of her father and her husband. 445 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: She was reborn, if her biography is a reliable account, 446 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,360 Speaker 1: From that point on, she was determined to follow only 447 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 1: what the spirits would direct, and direct they did. The 448 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: two sisters set out for Indianapolis, rented rooms in the 449 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: Bates House Hotel, and then announced to the public that 450 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: they were a pair of mediums. Ready, she later wrote 451 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 1: to treat patients for the cure of disease far away 452 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: in New York. That was the very thing Maggie Fox 453 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: wished that she could claim to be anxious at Elisha's sickness. 454 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 1: Maggie felt the joy of their marriage slipping away. It 455 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 1: vanished even faster for Elisha too, He was constantly wrapped 456 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,400 Speaker 1: up in thoughts of his death. Besides, the two of 457 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: them were still separated, the relationship with each other still 458 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: confined to scraps of paper delivered between cities, and no 459 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: spirit did Maggie's bidding. But they were about to be 460 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,479 Speaker 1: separated by an even greater divide, because Elisha had planned 461 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,920 Speaker 1: a journey to England. He was going to meet with 462 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: the family of his hero, Sir John Franklin, even though 463 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 1: he had never located the explorers remains. When Elisha left 464 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,760 Speaker 1: on October eleven, eighteen fifty six, just a month after 465 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,480 Speaker 1: they were married, he asked Mary to stand in the 466 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,040 Speaker 1: doorway so that he could see her until the last 467 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,440 Speaker 1: moment his carriage pulled away. Before he had gone out 468 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,480 Speaker 1: of site, though, a carriage lurched to a stop, and 469 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 1: he rushed back, begging Maggie to tell him whether he 470 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: should go. Sorrowfully, Maggie sent him along. Here's author Nancy Stewart. Finally, 471 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 1: he's supposed to go to England to be honored by 472 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,960 Speaker 1: the Royal Society and to have reception all Whitehall and 473 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,480 Speaker 1: all kinds of other dignitaries. And he arrives there in 474 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 1: October eighteen fifty six. And his plan is, now that 475 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,000 Speaker 1: he's married her, he's going to support Maggie with the 476 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: proceeds from his book. And there's a way that they 477 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,960 Speaker 1: have secretly had some intermediary who can get her letters 478 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: to him in England and so on. Because his family 479 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 1: is still watching very carefully. It's just really heartbreaking. Despite 480 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,680 Speaker 1: his disapproval of Maggie's career as a medium, Elisha had 481 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:00,440 Speaker 1: come to respect the social role that Maggie had created 482 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 1: for herself. It broke new territory for women like her. 483 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 1: Spiritualism put girls and women in front of crowds and 484 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: grasped their attention like never before. Even the theater, with 485 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:17,360 Speaker 1: its winking implications, had never conferred such authority on a medium. 486 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,960 Speaker 1: In one letter, Elisha wrote that when crowds attended his lectures, 487 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,640 Speaker 1: as he said, to hear the wild stories of the 488 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,120 Speaker 1: frozen North, he started to see the similarities between his 489 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,960 Speaker 1: work and hers. He believed he was giving the people 490 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:34,440 Speaker 1: something true, thrilling them with stories of new horizons. It 491 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: echoed what Maggie told him about bringing the spirits near. 492 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,880 Speaker 1: It made him wonder when people came to hear lectures 493 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: about his years locked in the ice, the mysterious wraiths, 494 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: and his starvation in frozen harbors. Were they really coming 495 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:53,160 Speaker 1: to learn science or something deeper. Maybe they were coming 496 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 1: to him for the same thing they wanted out of Maggie. 497 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,920 Speaker 1: I sometimes feel that we are not so far removed, 498 00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: after all, he wrote, I am no better than the rappers. 499 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:07,400 Speaker 1: I confess that there is not so much difference. When 500 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,440 Speaker 1: he landed in Liverpool, Elisha was flattened for two days 501 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,120 Speaker 1: by a racking cough, but never wanted to shrink from 502 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,920 Speaker 1: a challenge. He summoned the energy to press on to London. 503 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,240 Speaker 1: Sir John Franklin's widow met him and found him to 504 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,240 Speaker 1: be charming. She also urged him to gather his strength 505 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,280 Speaker 1: and continue with public campaigning to please her. He pushed 506 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: himself too far. The daily stream of letters from Maggie 507 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 1: couldn't hold Elisha back from death, store though perhaps in 508 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:36,200 Speaker 1: part because so few of them actually made it through 509 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,719 Speaker 1: his family's dragnet. Then a delegation of his friends and 510 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:44,680 Speaker 1: family reached England and swept Elisha off to Cuba. They 511 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 1: had hoped the warmer climate might save him, but the 512 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 1: journey to Havannah turned out to be more deadly than 513 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,560 Speaker 1: his trip to the Arctic. After he suffered a stroke 514 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: at sea, it seemed the only thing Elisha's family had 515 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:58,760 Speaker 1: truly managed to shield him from was Maggie's loving words. 516 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,560 Speaker 1: One of the last things he ever wrote was utterly 517 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,560 Speaker 1: gut wrenching. It was an urgent plea for his wife 518 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,920 Speaker 1: to write him something, anything, a second stroke sent him 519 00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: on his final journey. He passed away on February of 520 00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:20,280 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven. His body was taken to New Orleans 521 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,560 Speaker 1: on a steamship, then up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers 522 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,920 Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, whereas Coffin was loaded onto a touring train. 523 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:31,160 Speaker 1: It made stops in Columbus, Baltimore, and beyond as it 524 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: headed east. An American hero and a son of science, 525 00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,480 Speaker 1: his corpse was honored just as his exploits had been. 526 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:43,120 Speaker 1: Elisha Caine's scientific career was put to rest along with 527 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,719 Speaker 1: his remains, although the tide of American science and conquest 528 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: rolled on to honor his memory and his wishes. A 529 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: grief stricken Maggie was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church 530 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:58,240 Speaker 1: that August, and she swore that she would never hold 531 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:12,279 Speaker 1: another seance again. While Maggie Moore and a Lasha's death, 532 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,280 Speaker 1: her sisters Kate and Leah were still fighting for Spiritualism's life. 533 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:21,600 Speaker 1: America's churches hadn't snuffed out spiritualism at Hartford or anywhere else. 534 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 1: It's universities hadn't either, but they were determined to try again. 535 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:30,320 Speaker 1: This was they thought a job for Harvard men. At least, 536 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: that was the attitude around Boston in eighty seven. That's 537 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,920 Speaker 1: when one of the local newspapers, The Courier, decided to 538 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,239 Speaker 1: put some money in the game. They offered to pay 539 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:43,920 Speaker 1: five hundred dollars to any medium who could present satisfactory manifestations. 540 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,240 Speaker 1: It was a small fortune equal to roughly fifteen thousand 541 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,360 Speaker 1: dollars today, and as a hub of spiritualism, Boston offered 542 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:54,400 Speaker 1: up many mediums who were willing to be put to 543 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,840 Speaker 1: the test, and chief among them was Dr H. F. Gardner, 544 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,360 Speaker 1: a man who had been a leading light and austin 545 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:05,360 Speaker 1: spiritualist circles for years. Of course, academics had tried this 546 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,439 Speaker 1: sort of thing before, The University of Buffalo had given 547 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,840 Speaker 1: it their best shot, But Harvard had Louis Agassi, a 548 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: biologist and geologist who was widely respected by a whole 549 00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: generation of scientists, to test the spiritualists. He was joined 550 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: by Eban Horsford, Harvard's chair of chemistry, and Benjamin Pierce, 551 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:27,400 Speaker 1: Harvard's professor of astronomy and mathematics. In the context of 552 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:31,120 Speaker 1: that era, it was a star studded panel. A Gardner 553 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,239 Speaker 1: worked to bring his own stars to the stage two. 554 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: They gathered at Boston's Albion Building on June eighteen fifty seven. 555 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,920 Speaker 1: Sisters Leah Fish and Kate Fox were Gardner's heavy hitters, 556 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: brought in from out of town, but they had a 557 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,600 Speaker 1: supporting cast of local mediums who were ready to show 558 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:51,759 Speaker 1: Harvard spiritualism's true power. For that purpose, they built a 559 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,160 Speaker 1: pine platform in the center of a room to serve 560 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: as a sounding board for the spirits, and then they 561 00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,600 Speaker 1: put a light pine table on top of it. On 562 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:02,440 Speaker 1: the first day, with everyone arrayed around the room, Leah 563 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,879 Speaker 1: and Kate climbed onto the platform and kicked the events off. 564 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,919 Speaker 1: The tapping sounds started almost right away. Then it rose 565 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: in power until finally it was hammering on the pine boards. 566 00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,839 Speaker 1: It seemed the spirits wanted to make themselves known. They 567 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:22,520 Speaker 1: were ready for questions. The Harvard group circled around the 568 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,480 Speaker 1: demonstration table. Horseford started to ask a series of questions. 569 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,680 Speaker 1: The tapping started up again, but Leah frowned. The other 570 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:35,120 Speaker 1: spiritualists in the room started to mutter the replies are confused, 571 00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: They said, something wasn't right. At one point, Gardner turned 572 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 1: towards the Harvard delecation and suggested that maybe the spirits 573 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,319 Speaker 1: were trying to show the stuck up academics that they 574 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,040 Speaker 1: weren't going to be trifled with. They're trying to make 575 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:51,839 Speaker 1: sport of us, he told them. Somehow, this wasn't very 576 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,439 Speaker 1: convincing to the investigators. The mood soured and they called 577 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,600 Speaker 1: it off for the day. The following day, Horseford entered 578 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,240 Speaker 1: the room carrying a sealed m velope. When the parties 579 00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:04,200 Speaker 1: had arranged themselves to contact the spirits, he slid the 580 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:08,279 Speaker 1: envelope onto the table ask the spirits, he said, to 581 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,560 Speaker 1: tell me what it says inside, But all of them 582 00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: sat frozen. The silence stretched on as the clock ticked. 583 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,120 Speaker 1: Finally it was Gardner who sat up. He said the 584 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:21,480 Speaker 1: spirits had spoken to him and revealed that there was 585 00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:25,480 Speaker 1: nothing they could do, and outside influence, he said, was 586 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: absorbing and controlling their power. Eventually, one of the Boston 587 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: mediums grabbed a sheet of paper. As their hand began 588 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,640 Speaker 1: to twitch, they put pencil to scrap and started to write. 589 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,400 Speaker 1: After a moment, they leaned back. The Harvard men approached 590 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,600 Speaker 1: for a better look and found four blocks of unintelligible 591 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:46,839 Speaker 1: script covering the page. No one in the room could 592 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:50,759 Speaker 1: say what it meant. The mediums started to go in 593 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,560 Speaker 1: and out of the room. Each time, Gardner would say 594 00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:56,759 Speaker 1: that the spirits were speaking outside and would only communicate 595 00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,440 Speaker 1: when the unbelievers weren't there. The professors just shook their 596 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,919 Speaker 1: heads and adjourned the second day. On the third day, 597 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:07,600 Speaker 1: it brought more of the same, nothing from the spirits 598 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:11,719 Speaker 1: under test conditions. The mediums accused the investigators of disturbing 599 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:15,680 Speaker 1: the necessary harmony of the energy. The investigators lost their 600 00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:22,440 Speaker 1: patients and called the whole display excessively silly and inexpressibly tedious. Meanwhile, 601 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,880 Speaker 1: the Boston Couriers reporter scribbled down his thoughts in the corner. 602 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: Gardner stopped over to him and growled in his face, 603 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,719 Speaker 1: accusing him of being the one to disrupt the spirit communication. 604 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,400 Speaker 1: Before they quit altogether, someone in the group suggested they 605 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: try one last test that didn't require knockings on the table, 606 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 1: So they called the Davenport Brothers forward. Here's historian Emily Clark. 607 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,600 Speaker 1: The famous Davenport brothers, William and Ira had this large 608 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,080 Speaker 1: cabinet in which both of them would be bound, and 609 00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:53,960 Speaker 1: then the audience would hear musical instruments being played after 610 00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,640 Speaker 1: they were closed in the cabinets. They're even tests to 611 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:01,439 Speaker 1: prove that they weren't playing the instruments themselves. Horseford tied 612 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: their wrists himself, and then Professor Pierce climbed into the 613 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,160 Speaker 1: cabinet with them. When it was closed, Pierce gathered all 614 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: the musical instruments and piled them beneath his legs. Two tambourines, 615 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:17,320 Speaker 1: a fiddle, banjo, and a tin horn. If the spirits 616 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,120 Speaker 1: could still play the instruments, they'd have to do so 617 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:24,200 Speaker 1: by evading his guard. After sitting in the dark for 618 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:29,240 Speaker 1: ten minutes. The only thing the cabinet produced with silence. 619 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,040 Speaker 1: As far as the Courier was concerned, the failure of 620 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: the Davenport brothers sealed the matter. The paper and its 621 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:47,360 Speaker 1: Harvard professors declared spiritualism and I quote, a ridiculous and 622 00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:51,520 Speaker 1: infamous imposture. They exited the test facility with the same 623 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:56,000 Speaker 1: amount of indifference and contempt they arrived with, denied the 624 00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:58,600 Speaker 1: prize money, and now taking a beating in the press, 625 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,839 Speaker 1: Kate and Leah Rich needed to lick their wounds. Now 626 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:05,879 Speaker 1: every one of the sisters felt themselves adrift. The heats 627 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,000 Speaker 1: of Maggie's short, secret marriage froze in the creeping chill 628 00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:12,279 Speaker 1: of Alisha's death, and she was also now struggling to 629 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,920 Speaker 1: win a contest for money. You see, Elisha's parents controlled 630 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:20,879 Speaker 1: his personal effects, including his writings. Maggie tried to claim 631 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,640 Speaker 1: the financial legacy that Elisha had promised her, but his 632 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: family claimed there was no mention of her in his will. 633 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,000 Speaker 1: But then again, they also refused to let Maggie or 634 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,160 Speaker 1: her friends read it. They even tried to pry Elisha's 635 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,200 Speaker 1: love letters out of Maggie's grasp. For the time being, 636 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,799 Speaker 1: she was left with nothing but her own loss, and 637 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,280 Speaker 1: they're on ending hatred. But it wasn't just Maggie whose 638 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,920 Speaker 1: financial future was torn to pieces by disaster. In fact, 639 00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,600 Speaker 1: it was most of the nation. By the end of 640 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:52,200 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, things were on shaky ground around Wall Street. 641 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:56,400 Speaker 1: Some were saying the railroads driving west had over extended themselves. 642 00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:59,560 Speaker 1: Others thought that political trouble in France and England had 643 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,880 Speaker 1: pulled Overseas money back to Europe. Then one of America's 644 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:08,640 Speaker 1: largest banks collapsed due to an embezzlement scandal. If things 645 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: were going to hold together, new money needed to come in, 646 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,080 Speaker 1: and wealthy New Yorkers knew just where to find it. 647 00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:17,759 Speaker 1: Gold was on its way from California, one and a 648 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:20,799 Speaker 1: half million dollars worth of it, in fact, and on 649 00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:23,640 Speaker 1: a single ship, a ship of gold that would calm 650 00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:28,320 Speaker 1: investors and put anxieties to rest. But it never arrived. 651 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 1: On September twelfth, news reached the city that a hurricane 652 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,440 Speaker 1: had traveled up the Atlantic and caught the ship as 653 00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:37,880 Speaker 1: it steamed along the coast of South Carolina. It foundered 654 00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,040 Speaker 1: in the stormy waves and sank two hundred miles from shore. 655 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:47,600 Speaker 1: One by one, and then all at once. America's banks collapsed. 656 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,120 Speaker 1: Whatever gold they had was pulled out by panicking investors. 657 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,600 Speaker 1: One Wall Street lawyer wrote in his diary, all confidence 658 00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 1: is lost in the solvency of our merchant princes, and 659 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 1: with good reason, every last one of them has been 660 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:07,360 Speaker 1: gambling in stocks and railroad bonds. By the middle of October, 661 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,400 Speaker 1: every bank in the country except one had closed its doors, 662 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: and the nation found itself smothered by a deep depression, 663 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:23,160 Speaker 1: just like the heart of Maggie Fox. That's it for 664 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:27,320 Speaker 1: this week's episode of Unobscured. Stick around After this short 665 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,520 Speaker 1: sponsor break for a preview of what's in store for 666 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:39,400 Speaker 1: next week Next Time on Unobscured. Born to a Quaker 667 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:43,399 Speaker 1: family and a fan of Swedenborg's mysticism, Whitman followed an 668 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,680 Speaker 1: interest in spiritualism throughout his whole life. In fact, the 669 00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,800 Speaker 1: older he got, the deeper he went. He even began 670 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,520 Speaker 1: to see himself as a medium, and even wrote that 671 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:58,520 Speaker 1: poets are divine mediums. Through them come spirits and materials 672 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,320 Speaker 1: to all the people. Whitman also sought out the friendship 673 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:04,959 Speaker 1: of the Universalist minister in New York, who had worked 674 00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,279 Speaker 1: with Andrew Jackson Davis to transcribe his spirit lectures in 675 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:12,239 Speaker 1: the eighteen forties. Together they attended seances by a spiritualist 676 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:16,000 Speaker 1: named Thomas Lake Harris, a medium who wrote mystical poetry 677 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,240 Speaker 1: while in his trances. It was just what Whitman liked, 678 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,880 Speaker 1: and when Whitman attended a Cora Hatch spirit lecture, he 679 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,600 Speaker 1: was so inspired by her that he became determined to 680 00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,800 Speaker 1: develop his own powers of spirit communication. Put it all together, 681 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,279 Speaker 1: and it adds up to one big mess. We'd like 682 00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:37,040 Speaker 1: to believe that the connection between spiritualism and social causes 683 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,560 Speaker 1: like abolition were simple, but we've seen by now. Rather 684 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,440 Speaker 1: than being a neat and tidy bundle of threads woven 685 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:46,759 Speaker 1: into a beautiful story, those connections were more of a 686 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:50,720 Speaker 1: snarl knot the good and the bad all mixed together, 687 00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,200 Speaker 1: judging by life in New York at the time, though 688 00:43:54,960 --> 00:44:14,799 Speaker 1: none of that should come as a surprise. Unobscured was 689 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,960 Speaker 1: created by me, Aaron Mankey and produced by Matt Frederick, 690 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,880 Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Josh Thane in partnership with I Heart Radio. 691 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:24,839 Speaker 1: Research and writing for this season is all the work 692 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:27,480 Speaker 1: of my right hand man Carl Nellis and the brilliant 693 00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:31,240 Speaker 1: Chad Lawson composed the brand new soundtrack. Learn more about 694 00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,960 Speaker 1: our contributing historians, source material and links to our other 695 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:39,799 Speaker 1: shows over at history unobscured dot com, and until next time, 696 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:50,399 Speaker 1: thanks for listening Unobscured as a production of I Heart 697 00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,759 Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Minkey. For more podcasts for my Heart 698 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 1: radiocasit i heeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 699 00:44:55,680 --> 00:45:01,600 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Four