1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 1: Welcomed, unobscured a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Minkey. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: The stage was stripped of adornments. Maggie promised that her 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: act would be as well. Finally, The New York Times 4 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: described the platform as bare and somber, but the crowd 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,439 Speaker 1: was anything but. They filled the room with noise, all 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: of them hissing and shouting before Maggie could even begin. 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: The press was wild with excitement. They filled the New 8 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: York Academy of Music in October when Maggie appeared on stage, 9 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 1: just as she had so many times since her childhood 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: in Rochester. A front page illustrated story in that morning's 11 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: issue of The New York World ensured the crowd would 12 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 1: pack the hall. After an opening act that highlighted the 13 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: tricks used to debunk other mediums, Maggie arrived on stage, 14 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: still dark haired in her fifties. She out needed glasses 15 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,319 Speaker 1: to see the words she'd written for herself. Maggie held 16 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: the lenses up to her eyes and read off a declaration. 17 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,679 Speaker 1: Everything she had done for spiritualism over the course of 18 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: her life was a falsehood. She had already published a 19 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: letter in The New York Herald that called spiritualism, a 20 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: curse and a covering for heartless persons and the vilest miscreants, 21 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: people who used it to cloak their evil doings. As 22 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: she said, now she was making the same pronouncements in person. 23 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: But it wasn't just statements. Of course, Like so many 24 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,800 Speaker 1: other rooms before, the hall became filled with knocking sounds. 25 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: They started around Maggie's feet faintly, then they rose along 26 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: the walls and scattered upward, where they rang out from 27 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: the ceiling, thundering throughout the room. Here's author Nancy Stewart, 28 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: and she and hikes up her skirts and shows how 29 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: she makes these sounds their feet with her toes. And 30 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: by now there's a national Association of Spiritualists and so on, 31 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: and they are just outraged. What follows is an enormous 32 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: controversy that goes on for a long time. A committee 33 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: of doctors stepped on stage and solemnly confirmed what she 34 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: told them. Maggie made the sounds with her feet. It 35 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: was all a hoax, a fraud, and it was everything 36 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: they wanted, an exorcism of Mrs Satan herself and everything 37 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: she stood for. The newspapers, crowd doubters and cynics roared 38 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: their approval from the rooftops. This was spiritualism defeated. This 39 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: was the perpetrators of the nineteenth centuries most infamous fraud 40 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: finally dragged into the light around the Fox family acid 41 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: rumors had always circulated that Leah, a single mom, saw 42 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: an opportunity to take a simple gag her younger siblings 43 00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 1: were pulling on their parents and turn it into something 44 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: which larger a chance to enchant and enthrall audiences. And yes, 45 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 1: it was also her chance to do more than be 46 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: a part time piano teacher for the daughters of aspiring 47 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: middle class families. But did Leah, like Cornelius Vanderbilt throughout 48 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: his own life, see an opportunity and seize it with 49 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: a vengeance? She was like P. T. Barnum, just someone 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: who knew how to profit from spectacle when it crossed 51 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: her path. For viewers of Maggie's very public confession, at 52 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: least that was the takeaway, But it wasn't so simple. 53 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: Here's historian and Browdie. Fraud is a very fraud subject 54 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: in spiritualism, because there are no question that there have 55 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 1: been fraudulent mediums who perpetrated deception on the public and 56 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: profited by it, and that there have been gullible people 57 00:03:53,720 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: who were embarrassed and disserviced by fraudulent mediums. Yeah, now 58 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: that is also true of many professions, law and medicine, 59 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: for example, Not to mention politics provides opportunities for deception 60 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: and double speak and misrepresentation. Does that mean that all 61 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: participants in it have those motives and are dishonest? Spiritualist 62 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: believers weren't swayed by Maggie's performance, As we've noticed throughout 63 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: this season of Unobscured. The Fox Sisters were often put 64 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: forward as the mothers of the movement, but they were 65 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 1: far from the only mediums at work in their world, 66 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: and even if their own stage shows were faked, those 67 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: hoaxes didn't invalidate centuries of spiritual visions and experiences that 68 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,280 Speaker 1: had breathed life into the movement long before the Fox 69 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,599 Speaker 1: Sisters were even on the scene. And when it came 70 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:06,479 Speaker 1: to Kate and Maggie, spiritualists pointed to Maggie's history of alcoholism. 71 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: She was already discredited. They said, there was nothing she 72 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,039 Speaker 1: could say now, no lie she could fabricate that could 73 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:18,720 Speaker 1: undo a lifetime of miracles. She was simply pandering to 74 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: the doubters in order to stir up controversy, they said, 75 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: and to put herself in the headlines once again. In fact, 76 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: Leah's husband, Daniel Underhill, soon went to the newspapers to 77 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: make it known that Maggie had betrayed spiritualism out of spite, 78 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,280 Speaker 1: just to put a knife in her sister's back. After all, 79 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: Maggie and Leah had been at odds for decades, and 80 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:43,280 Speaker 1: three years earlier, Leah, at this point in her seventies, 81 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: had published her own book, The Missing Link in Spiritualism. 82 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, Maggie's on stage confession was 83 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 1: an axe that hacked at the root of Leah's claims. 84 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: But could that attack banish everything, including Andrew Jackson Davis's 85 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: harmonial philosophy, Cora's trans lectures, Emma's histories, and Sojourner Truth's 86 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:14,600 Speaker 1: lifetime of work and love and power. New Yorkers had 87 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: certainly witnessed a disaster, yes, But like so many spectacles 88 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,479 Speaker 1: from the world of spiritualism, it seemed that ultimately what 89 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: observers took away from it all looked very much like 90 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:51,360 Speaker 1: what they brought in belief this is unobscured. I'm Aaron Manky. 91 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,880 Speaker 1: Cora took the age. She had been doing it her 92 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: whole life. After all, it was eight and she had 93 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: arrived at the National American Women's Suffrage Convention with an 94 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: official title from an official group. She was now the 95 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: head of the fraternal delegation to the Convention from the 96 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: National Spiritualist Association, and she was there to celebrate the 97 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of eighteen forty eight for the women's suffrage movement. 98 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: It marked fifty years since meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, 99 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: and the Declaration of Sentiments that had placed a stake 100 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: in the ground for American women's rights and equality. There 101 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 1: was still so much work to be done before those 102 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: rights would be recognized, but much had changed in those 103 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: fifty years. Women had already cast legal ballots in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, 104 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: and Colorado, but it would still be decades before the 105 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 1: Nineteenth Amendment would be passed into law in nineteen twenty, 106 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: giving women across the nation the right to vote. One 107 00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: courageous and outrageous woman had even run for presidency, however 108 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:05,119 Speaker 1: unconventional her approach might have been. For Cora, of course, 109 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: also marked fifty years since the fateful events around Rochester. 110 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: That decade that followed Maggie's confession of fraud in New 111 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: York had done little to overthrow Cora's worldview or her 112 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,360 Speaker 1: place among spiritualists. In fact, the eighteen eighties and eighteen 113 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: nineties were a time when spiritualism and Cora's role within it, 114 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 1: took on a more permanent form. She had settled in 115 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 1: Chicago right around the time when Victoria Woodhall was cutting 116 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: ties and leaving for England with a pocket full of 117 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:38,960 Speaker 1: Vanderbilt money. Victoria's reputation as Mrs Satan had threatened COR's livelihood, 118 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,320 Speaker 1: as it did for spiritualist mediums across the nation, but 119 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,439 Speaker 1: I didn't stop Cora from marrying into a widely respected 120 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 1: Chicago family and taking a paid position as the shepherd 121 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: of the city's first society of Spiritualists. In eighteen eighty nine, 122 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,720 Speaker 1: Cora and other Chicago spiritualists formed the Morris Pratt Institute 123 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, built with the proceeds of a mining company, 124 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: a company that had been guided to valuable mineral deposits 125 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: by mediums and their helpful spirits. The Institute would become 126 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: a Temple and School for Spiritualists, a place where teachers 127 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,320 Speaker 1: and students could meet together and study the works of 128 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: spiritualist theology that mediums like Andrew Jackson Davis, Emma Brittain, 129 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:24,559 Speaker 1: and even Cora herself had delivered to the world. Three 130 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: years later, in Nettie Colburn died, she had been the 131 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: most prominent medium to ever claim that she'd had the 132 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 1: ear of Abraham Lincoln. When she was laid to rest, 133 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: it was Cora who took the pulpit to preside over 134 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: her funeral. The following year, eightee saw an astonishing event 135 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:47,720 Speaker 1: come to Chicago. Along with the World's Columbian Exhibition. Something 136 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: new arrived, the World Parliament of Religions, a two week 137 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,280 Speaker 1: summit on faith. But while the spiritualists weren't part of 138 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,280 Speaker 1: the larger gathering, they were certainly there in spirit. Here's 139 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: and Browdie once again in we have the World's Colombian Exhibition, 140 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:11,080 Speaker 1: where we have Americans exposed to many of the religions 141 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: of Asia for the first time, and we have Swamy's 142 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 1: and other Asian religious leaders recruited to come to the 143 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:25,000 Speaker 1: United States and teach Americans about their faith. And so 144 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,559 Speaker 1: we have the whole movement of theosophy which is attempting, 145 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:33,040 Speaker 1: attempting to combine the wisdom of the East and make 146 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: it accessible to Westerners. And Spiritualism moves in and out 147 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:44,200 Speaker 1: of all of these developments. Because spiritualism is always available, 148 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,960 Speaker 1: you can always talk to the dead and in any movement, 149 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: whether you think that wisdom is going to come from 150 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:56,479 Speaker 1: Egypt or from Tibet, or from South America or from Australia, 151 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: you can always make contact with the spirit from one 152 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,640 Speaker 1: of those places who can give you wisdom that draws 153 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:10,080 Speaker 1: on those traditions and on esoteric practices from another part 154 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: of the world. In fact, spiritualists saw that the reason 155 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: they didn't share the stage with their fellow believers was 156 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: that they still had no organization, and that was the 157 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: precise agenda of their meeting to form a permanent national association. 158 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:28,200 Speaker 1: They believed it was time for the best interests of 159 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:31,440 Speaker 1: spiritualists to have a more unified home, and one that 160 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: was more identifiable than a simple network of newspapers passed 161 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:41,000 Speaker 1: between spirit circles in Washington, Boston, and Chicago. By the 162 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:45,199 Speaker 1: end of their meeting, the National Spiritualists Association was born. Now, 163 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:49,199 Speaker 1: they said outside societies could contact them at their headquarters 164 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:53,240 Speaker 1: with requests for information, or you know, with invitations to 165 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: important meetings of the world's religions. Wink, wink. The irony 166 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: of spiritualists boxing themselves in wasn't lost on those at 167 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 1: the meeting, or on Cora herself. She started her welcome 168 00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:08,400 Speaker 1: address to the convention by noting that in the past, 169 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,320 Speaker 1: asking spiritualists to join an organization was like talking to 170 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: someone who had escaped from prison about going back again. 171 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,360 Speaker 1: All things connected to human life, she once said, have 172 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: been organized to death. Cora was probably not the only 173 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 1: one to remember just how many spiritualists had left their 174 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: churches to join the ranks of science schoers. That had 175 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:32,079 Speaker 1: certainly been true for the Posts who had left the 176 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,840 Speaker 1: Quaker organization behind. It was true of Henri and his 177 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: Sir Carmonique, and for Catholics everywhere who wrestled against church authority, 178 00:12:40,559 --> 00:12:43,319 Speaker 1: and it was a strong memory for any spiritualist who 179 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:45,800 Speaker 1: had been present for the Ruckus at the Hartford Bible 180 00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: Convention forty years earlier. Although those numbers were shrinking every day, 181 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,680 Speaker 1: Spiritualism had always threatened the priest, politicians, and profiteers who 182 00:12:56,720 --> 00:13:00,200 Speaker 1: benefited from the status quo. It had given spiritual and 183 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,839 Speaker 1: moral authority to people who had been stripped of their rights, 184 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: pushed to the margins, and burdened with work, while others 185 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: reaped the rewards. The last thing spiritualists wanted to do, 186 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,719 Speaker 1: even in the nineties was to give up on their 187 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:16,800 Speaker 1: labors and returned to a world of the strong crushing 188 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: the week. But in the coming decades, Cora and the 189 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:23,640 Speaker 1: Chicago Spiritualists weren't the only ones who saw a spiritualist 190 00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 1: future finally taking shape. It just wasn't the future they 191 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 1: had expected. Death was not something to be afraid of. 192 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: For Henri and the Cir Carmonique, death was just what 193 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson Davis taught it to be, a door into 194 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: a new and more perfect existence. It was the chance 195 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:50,240 Speaker 1: to leave a corrupt world behind and to climb into 196 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:55,360 Speaker 1: a higher, more sublime, more magnificent country. For as long 197 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: as their science circles had gathered together, the cir Carmonique 198 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:01,240 Speaker 1: had held onto the belief that by talking with the spirits, 199 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,880 Speaker 1: they could learn all about that more magnificent country, and 200 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:08,600 Speaker 1: then they could make this world more like it. In 201 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:11,360 Speaker 1: his role as a city official and a school board 202 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:13,960 Speaker 1: member on reh had seen the chance to do just that. 203 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: But as time went on, it became clear just how 204 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:22,360 Speaker 1: fierce the opposition was. Here's historian Emily Clark. Violence, like 205 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: the Mechanics Institute right, was not alone. In seventy four 206 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: of the Battle of Liberty Place, during which the White League, 207 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: a white supremacist organization, takes control of New Orleans and 208 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 1: is like cutting telegraph wires and so that messages can't 209 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: get out, they slaughter the At that point, integrated police 210 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: kill some people who are just walking by. There's a 211 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: black carpenter who's killed with his own hatchet by White 212 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,160 Speaker 1: leaguers who are just like marauding through the city. During 213 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: that the spirits of Mechanics Institute riot martyrs appear to 214 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: the Sar Carmenique and encourage them to keep the faith 215 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 1: that their rights will be maintained. Henri did keep the faith, 216 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: but he watched pieces of his world fall apart around him. 217 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: Black students were kicked out of New Orleans schools not 218 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: long after he was forced off the school board as well. 219 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: Efforts to rebuild the South in the image of a 220 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: different world had been abandoned by the political powers of 221 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: the federal government. This is a place that is increasingly 222 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 1: becoming more and more dangerous to hold two ideas of equality, 223 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: it seems like actually starting in late eighteen Most of 224 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:41,200 Speaker 1: the seance records for the last two years are mainly 225 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: just on re and the following years were tough. One December, 226 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,400 Speaker 1: Andre's home was burned to the ground. His seance records 227 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:54,360 Speaker 1: were saved, including the handwritten messages from countless spirits, but 228 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:56,920 Speaker 1: much of what was precious to Anri was lost to 229 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: the flames, and slowly the members of the circle died 230 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: or moved on. I think about him sometimes, just sitting 231 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 1: by himself at a table, a table that used to 232 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,160 Speaker 1: be full of vibrant conversation about the potential of what 233 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: the spirit spoke of, and now it's just him. I'm 234 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: sure the silence records offered some comfort, but in the end, 235 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: it's just him, and the records end in November of 236 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven, as reconstruction itself comes to a close. 237 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:33,040 Speaker 1: Even as the radical fire burned low in some spiritualist circles, 238 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:36,520 Speaker 1: the fight for equality continued. The Great Railroad Strike of 239 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:40,920 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven inspired working class people across the country. 240 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 1: Nine years later, forty thou workers in Chicago fought with 241 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:47,920 Speaker 1: police in another nationwide push for an eight hour work day. 242 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: In one street battle, police killed four strikers. The following day, 243 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:54,800 Speaker 1: a bomb was thrown into a crowd of police as 244 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: they marched toward protesters. Eight of the officers were killed 245 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: and dozens more were in In response, the police opened 246 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: fire on the crowd and each other. Eight of the 247 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:10,280 Speaker 1: city's anarchist organizers were scooped up in the following police raids, 248 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,439 Speaker 1: and that's when Cora stepped in, taking up the mantle 249 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,760 Speaker 1: that Victoria had laid aside. Believing in the cause of 250 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,399 Speaker 1: the striking workers, Cora was shocked when she heard that 251 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:24,120 Speaker 1: the arrested anarchists were going to be hanged on circumstantial evidence. 252 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:28,400 Speaker 1: She organized an amnesty committee and then set out for Springfield, Illinois, 253 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,119 Speaker 1: to confront the governor and asked him to support the 254 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:35,320 Speaker 1: eight hour work day. A massive crowd of people from 255 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:37,960 Speaker 1: across the state had gathered at the state House pleading 256 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,480 Speaker 1: for the men to be saved. One reporter noted that 257 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,359 Speaker 1: Cora's lecture was so moving that it left the group 258 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: in tears. More than any other. It was this act 259 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:51,720 Speaker 1: that wrote Cora's name into Chicago's history. In the end, 260 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: though the governor met Cora's please the same way New 261 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:58,240 Speaker 1: York met Victoria, she was turned away. Four of the 262 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: men were hanged, and Cora turned home in mourning, but 263 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,880 Speaker 1: also certain of her righteous cause. She later wrote that 264 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,479 Speaker 1: the power of money and of human selfishness are doomed, 265 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:13,720 Speaker 1: whether in the individual, or in society, or in corporations, 266 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:19,320 Speaker 1: or in governments, or in crowns or in kingdoms. Perhaps 267 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,600 Speaker 1: it would just take longer than the spirits had led 268 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:24,520 Speaker 1: her to believe. But Cora wasn't the only one on 269 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 1: daunted by setbacks, because there were Spiritualists across the country 270 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,119 Speaker 1: who had begun to revive that dream of a model 271 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: community that had fostered Spiritualist beliefs way back in the 272 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: eighteen forties. All of them, we're looking for a place 273 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:52,520 Speaker 1: the finally call home. It was a camp, but only 274 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 1: in name. In fact, the thriving Spiritualist community in western 275 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,200 Speaker 1: New York had showed signs of being a permanent settlement 276 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,639 Speaker 1: from its early ist years. They would eventually rename their 277 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: town lily Dale. They built their own post office, hotel, store, 278 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: and library. They even took on a bold new project. 279 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:13,400 Speaker 1: They relocated the house where the Fox family had first 280 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: been shocked by the sounds of spirit rappings, and once 281 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,200 Speaker 1: it was safely at home in lily Dale, the structure 282 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: turned their community into the destination for spiritualist pilgrimages in 283 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:28,000 Speaker 1: the Northeast. Down in Florida, friends of the lily Dale 284 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,720 Speaker 1: community followed spirit voices to a home of their own 285 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,280 Speaker 1: on the Atlantic Coast. Previous meetings in Florida had brought 286 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:39,159 Speaker 1: together as many as one thousand spiritualists, so in the 287 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: president of the National Spiritualist Association joined the founders of 288 00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 1: lily Dale and many others to open camp meetings in Cassadega, Florida. 289 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 1: As so many spiritualists had done before, they put out 290 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: a call for universal brotherhood, welcoming people of any race 291 00:19:56,160 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: or class who were interested in spiritualism. But when white 292 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 1: Northern leaders welcome their new black neighbors to lectures at Cassadega, 293 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,199 Speaker 1: they violated several Jim Crow laws, highlighting the spirit of 294 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: liberty that had visited so many seance tables in previous decades. 295 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: Here's historian Kathy gutierres the Cassadega community, the Wily Deal community. 296 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:24,320 Speaker 1: These folks understood perhaps the single most important thing about spiritualism, 297 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: and that is the vanguard for multiculturalism. I completely think 298 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,240 Speaker 1: that Spiritualism's primary contribution is to ethics, and it is 299 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:37,880 Speaker 1: to the dismantling of a duality of heaven and health, 300 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:43,119 Speaker 1: and to the relegating of all of your neighbors who 301 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: are not exactly like you to help. There are other 302 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:50,880 Speaker 1: people who didn't actively believe in a hell, the Unitarians, 303 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,119 Speaker 1: the universalists, right, everyone was going, you know, to heaven. 304 00:20:54,520 --> 00:21:00,359 Speaker 1: You don't want universalist smith. But as a mainstream, low 305 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:11,200 Speaker 1: splashy movement, spiritualism really was a driving force behind nascent multiculturalism, 306 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 1: and I think that that is its lasting contribution. Even today, 307 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: the Cassadega community continues to be a home for Spiritualist practice. 308 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: Like Lily Dale in New York. It remains an enduring 309 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,679 Speaker 1: testament to the power of the harmonial philosophy and the 310 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:31,480 Speaker 1: deep belief of the generations who had lived and loved 311 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:35,520 Speaker 1: its teachings. But it wasn't just on the East Coast 312 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:39,679 Speaker 1: that spiritualists made more permanent homes. In California, Spiritualist settled 313 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,919 Speaker 1: along the Pacific and form settlements like harmony growth, a 314 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: community that's still meeting in a spot first marked by 315 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:50,399 Speaker 1: a simple ten foot platform and a hitching post. In 316 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,240 Speaker 1: Santa Barbara County, Spiritualist formed a colony they called Summerland. 317 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: It was their own slice of heaven, and it became 318 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: a haven for spiritualist all throughout the West, even more 319 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: so when they drilled for oil off the coast, and yes, 320 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 1: you heard that right, by pumping crude oil up from 321 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,840 Speaker 1: the seafloor in eight six, the Summerland Project became the 322 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:14,320 Speaker 1: nation's first offshore oil well. It was one more sign 323 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,720 Speaker 1: for those still certain of their spirits guiding them at least, 324 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,280 Speaker 1: that they were entering a new age of prosperity. If 325 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,919 Speaker 1: only those spirits had been more foresighted. But if there 326 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 1: were some spiritualists who held true to those original goals 327 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: of the mid nineteenth century, there were others who had 328 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,679 Speaker 1: veered away. They were looking for new revelations in a 329 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: different direction. And even as those new offshoots of spiritualism grew, 330 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,159 Speaker 1: they watched the influence of the old spiritualism fade and change. 331 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: If you've been listening to the stories of figures like 332 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: Sojourn or Truth, Cora and the Fox Sisters. And you've 333 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,360 Speaker 1: been wondering what happened to spiritualism. Well, the answer might 334 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 1: lie closer than we think. Here's historian Molly McGarry. It 335 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,280 Speaker 1: had found its way to theosophy, which does grow. During 336 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: that time, spirituals are still meeting in camp meetings in 337 00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 1: the you know, in the eighteen eighties and beyond, they're 338 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 1: still doing their work. I think what's true is because 339 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:15,360 Speaker 1: the newspapers become less important and the community becomes more diverse, 340 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,880 Speaker 1: and because many historians look at the northeast and don't 341 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,439 Speaker 1: look at the west quite as much, that they've missed 342 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: a lot of the rebuilding that goes on in the 343 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,760 Speaker 1: eighteen eighties and the kind of experiments that are happening 344 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,040 Speaker 1: outside the northeast or the central New York, and that 345 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:33,879 Speaker 1: that area that had borth the original movement. So I 346 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,600 Speaker 1: think that it's less that spiritualism declines. I mean, that 347 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 1: would be one way to see it. But it just 348 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: becomes more difficult to see for all sorts of reasons, 349 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: and it moves, it moves into different formations, but it doesn't. 350 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,640 Speaker 1: I yes, theosophy was one of the new religious movements 351 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: that drew strength from its spiritualist roots but also from 352 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: its spiritualist founders. And among the earliest visionaries of theosophy 353 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: was Henry Steele Alcotts, that veteran investigator of frauds who 354 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: turned his mind to spiritualism in the eighteen seventies, and 355 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: he was joined by Emma Britton, whose theatrical performances were 356 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,320 Speaker 1: surpassed in their power by her histories of spiritualism itself. 357 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: Here's Kathy Gutierres once again. Well, Emma was at the 358 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,640 Speaker 1: initial eighteen seventy two party in New York that founded 359 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: the Theosophical Society. And what the Theosophical Society and Madame 360 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: Bolvowski in particular proposed is that spiritualism was this is 361 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:41,200 Speaker 1: my phrase, and obviously but too exoteric, right, That actual 362 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 1: occult work requires initiation, it requires adepts, and it requires secrecy. 363 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: So if you could talk to the dead, you were 364 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:57,280 Speaker 1: approaching something important, but you weren't there yet. So they 365 00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: actually set out to create a much more esoteric as 366 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:11,440 Speaker 1: an actively secret and requiring gradations of initiation that sort 367 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:16,080 Speaker 1: of spun off of some of the primary principles of spiritualism, 368 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: and it was also unlike spiritualism, which, as we've discussed, 369 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:26,320 Speaker 1: it's very optimistic in so many ways, theosophy is paranoid. 370 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:32,040 Speaker 1: It's a massive conspiracy theory. So it has a different trajectory, right. 371 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:37,719 Speaker 1: It is not progressive or kind or healing. At the 372 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,920 Speaker 1: core of it. It's much more about self transformation. It's 373 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 1: much more about the secrecy and inner sanctum. In the 374 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: eighteen seventies, Mary Baker Eddies Christian science joined theosophy as 375 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,119 Speaker 1: another religious belief that blossomed in the world that spiritualism 376 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,159 Speaker 1: had made. But it wasn't just new religious movements that 377 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: found their origin in spiritualism. It was science too, especially 378 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 1: the science of the mind in the eighties. When you 379 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: really see the rise of neurology and psychology as medical disciplines, 380 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:17,600 Speaker 1: then they start edging into what has traditionally been religion's purview. 381 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:22,400 Speaker 1: So when you have women speaking in multiple voices than 382 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,679 Speaker 1: traditionally okay, are you a saint, are you a witch? 383 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 1: Or are you mad? And Nancy Stewart agrees, So it's 384 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,200 Speaker 1: a gateway, if you will, into what we know today 385 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 1: is a modern psychology and understandings about psychiatric states and 386 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: trance states, and illnesses and and so on. I think 387 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,119 Speaker 1: that's all pretty familiar to people today, but then was 388 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: brand new investigation. In many ways, it's fair to say 389 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,720 Speaker 1: that spiritualism was the bridge from our past to our 390 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:58,960 Speaker 1: presence even today. If we know where to look, we 391 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: can find its trace is all around us. If we 392 00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,840 Speaker 1: listen closely, if we know how to interpret the quiet echoes, 393 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,159 Speaker 1: we can sense its eerie presence in the background of 394 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,119 Speaker 1: our everyday life, like the sounds of knocking on a 395 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:21,880 Speaker 1: distant door and I'm scaring. The past doesn't always mean 396 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,639 Speaker 1: delivering a simple story. Sometimes it means stripping away the 397 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: simple parts of our past that we think we know 398 00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,360 Speaker 1: in order to explore the complexities of what really happened. 399 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:34,960 Speaker 1: Sometimes that means we come into a chapter of history 400 00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:37,399 Speaker 1: thinking we have all the answers, and then learning that 401 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: the story we were told barely even gets the big 402 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,399 Speaker 1: picture right, let alone the smaller details. And honestly, it 403 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: sometimes means re examining a familiar moment in time and 404 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,760 Speaker 1: noticing the ways the crucial parts of its history were 405 00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: written out of the story, the embarrassing, the uncanny, the 406 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,560 Speaker 1: parts that look foolish when we're using today's lenses to 407 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: filter out the uncomfortable parts of our past. But when 408 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 1: we look back objectively, with help from scholars and historians 409 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,200 Speaker 1: like those who have joined us this season, we can 410 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: start to see with a bit more clarity. Spiritualist people, 411 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: along with their ideas and hopes and fears, were embedded 412 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: all throughout life in nineteenth century America. Religion, science, finance, technology, 413 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,639 Speaker 1: and politics were all braided together with the echo of 414 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 1: voices from beyond the grave. Rapid changes in the world 415 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,520 Speaker 1: gave rise to modern spiritualism, and then those spiritualists turned 416 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:37,159 Speaker 1: around and changed the world some more. By listening to 417 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: and following those spirit voices. Spiritualists showed just how much 418 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,400 Speaker 1: the age old questions still capture our hearts and minds, 419 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,440 Speaker 1: even as a rush of new ideas and new devices 420 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:52,120 Speaker 1: turn our world into something unfamiliar all over again. Here's 421 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: historian and browdie. We tend to think of seances as 422 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:02,280 Speaker 1: a parlor game, and certainly they could become that, and 423 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 1: they did become that a popular entertainment. But the first seances, 424 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,560 Speaker 1: I don't think we're games at all. I think they 425 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:16,320 Speaker 1: show us the deep, deep hunger to communicate with the 426 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: spirits of the dead, the deep hunger to be reconnected 427 00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: with loved ones that we have lost, and the deep 428 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,240 Speaker 1: hunger for knowledge of the divine, for knowledge of what 429 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: will happen after we die. I think how long it 430 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 1: took to get a spirit message by passing your hands 431 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,400 Speaker 1: over the alphabet until you heard raps at a single letter, 432 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 1: and then you had to repeat that process, maybe fifty 433 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,920 Speaker 1: or a hundred times to get a brief spirit message. 434 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:53,480 Speaker 1: And meanwhile, you're kind of hoping that you have a 435 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,320 Speaker 1: human medium who will be an effective vehicle for communication. 436 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:03,560 Speaker 1: And to my mom, as a historian, I feel completely 437 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:09,200 Speaker 1: confident in saying that the majority of mediums were absolutely 438 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 1: sincere in their belief that they were channeling communications from 439 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: the spirits of the dead. Spiritualism earned many critics throughout 440 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. It suffered through predators and fell victim 441 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:28,360 Speaker 1: to profit seeking opportunists, just like so many other realms 442 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 1: of American life. But I can't help but think back 443 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,960 Speaker 1: to Amy Post and her mixture of ardent, hope and 444 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: sincere belief in the eighteen fifties, because it was that 445 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,239 Speaker 1: mixture that led her to spend those long hours at 446 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,560 Speaker 1: the seance table taking down messages from the spirit world, 447 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 1: and all the criticism that can land at spiritualism's doorstep. Well, 448 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: it wasn't the death knell people assumed it would be. 449 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,000 Speaker 1: In many ways, we're still living in a world that 450 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: spiritualism made. Here are some final thoughts from Molly McGarry. 451 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: If it's very easy to sort of look back at 452 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: the past and see irrationality and superstition and a kind 453 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: of secularization narrative in which we, you know, are are 454 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,400 Speaker 1: no longer part of this kind of you know community 455 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: community of believers are dupes or the credulous ones. And 456 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: you know, I live in Los Angeles. Most people know 457 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,520 Speaker 1: their sun sign, if not their rising sign. People don't 458 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:28,240 Speaker 1: know their blood type, and they know their astrology. This 459 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,200 Speaker 1: hasn't gone away. I mean, what can be seen as 460 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 1: a kind of spurious consolation or after dinner pastime speaks 461 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:40,120 Speaker 1: to a real need for people for contact, for connection. 462 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,600 Speaker 1: And it's easy to see a superstition or as a 463 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,080 Speaker 1: child kids parlor game, but it was really powerful. It 464 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:51,480 Speaker 1: was amazing to me the way that the imagination, the 465 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 1: possibility that spiritualists could cross from this world to the next, 466 00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 1: allow them to collapse, distinctions between world, between bodies, between genders, 467 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: between races in some cases. That that cosmology allowed for 468 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:11,240 Speaker 1: a remaking of things in this world, and that material connection, 469 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 1: I think remains very powerful. There is no death. That's 470 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: what one of the best known British mediums called her memoir. 471 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,440 Speaker 1: She borrowed the title from American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 472 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 1: but the idea of messages traveling across fathomless depths had 473 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,000 Speaker 1: always defined spiritualism's power. Besides, spiritualists had been saying it 474 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,880 Speaker 1: for decades. For spiritualists, there is no Death wasn't just 475 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:41,680 Speaker 1: a platitude. It was truth. The memoir was published in 476 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,880 Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties and it reads like the personal recollections 477 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: that we've discussed throughout this season. The medium tells stories 478 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,600 Speaker 1: of encountering the spirits of dead children and lost friends, 479 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 1: and by doing so, she offered hope that even when 480 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,760 Speaker 1: our loved ones pass away, they will always be there. 481 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,920 Speaker 1: We can always talk to them because are always near. 482 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: After all, there is no death. But the First World 483 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: War was coming. It would deliver death to European families 484 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: on an unbelievable scale, and all that loss created a 485 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,400 Speaker 1: home for spiritualism in Britain that deserves to have its 486 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:22,320 Speaker 1: own story told. Here's historian John Busher. There was a 487 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:26,440 Speaker 1: big revival of spiritualism in the post War War One period, 488 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 1: and in some sense it's still a part of what 489 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: lay at the heart of spiritualism is still in continuity 490 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,600 Speaker 1: with what we see around us all the time in 491 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: our own culture. Belief in psychic powers, relief in channeled 492 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: texts that give some higher revelation. A lot of that 493 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 1: interest is now labeled new Age, which is a term 494 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: that was, as far as I know, was invented in 495 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: its original center, or in the sense that we know 496 00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,440 Speaker 1: it now in the spiritualist community. You know, a lot 497 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:04,000 Speaker 1: of that still with us today, just like the thousands 498 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,280 Speaker 1: of American mediums who haven't entered our story this season. 499 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,040 Speaker 1: The long and complex legacy of spiritualism in Britain has 500 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: only gotten a few brief mentions. But the same can 501 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,600 Speaker 1: be said about any of the other nations where spiritualists 502 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:19,759 Speaker 1: traveled and taught and heard their questions answered in the 503 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 1: dim light of a seance, places like Europe, Brazil, Puerto Rico, 504 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:28,920 Speaker 1: and Australia in the early nineteen twenties, though, spiritualism may 505 00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:31,520 Speaker 1: have found its most ardent new student in the person 506 00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,560 Speaker 1: of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who added his name to 507 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: the list of the Curious and then the converted. Here's 508 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,840 Speaker 1: Nancy Stewart. You know people have laughed about this, people 509 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: like Arthur Conan Doyle. Here we are the most rational 510 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:50,640 Speaker 1: detective writer. He's a spiritualist. Fudini started out believing in 511 00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,320 Speaker 1: it and then he got to debunk it as a magician. 512 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,439 Speaker 1: You know, it just kind of goes on. This leads later, 513 00:34:56,719 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: much later into investigations by people like William MacDougald, Harvard 514 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:06,120 Speaker 1: psychology professor was the chairman. Duke and his disciple Dr 515 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:11,480 Speaker 1: Joseph Banks Ryan look into esp In the first decades 516 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,200 Speaker 1: of the New century, Spiritualism was revived and responded to 517 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,480 Speaker 1: new catastrophes and to offer answers to the questions of 518 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:22,000 Speaker 1: a new century with its new wars, new technologies, and 519 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:28,000 Speaker 1: new social formations. It survived countless tests and investigations. It 520 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:31,399 Speaker 1: even outlived its most powerful publication, The Banner of Light, 521 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,200 Speaker 1: which finally ceased printing in nineteen o seven, and it 522 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,839 Speaker 1: survived the decline of its most hopeful early projects, as 523 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:42,120 Speaker 1: well as the scandals of its most prominent mediums. And 524 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,880 Speaker 1: there are so many more stories left to be told 525 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:57,560 Speaker 1: because for spiritualism, well, there is no death. She was 526 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:01,120 Speaker 1: the oldest, and of the many medium we followed this season, 527 00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:04,120 Speaker 1: it's easy to see how sojourn Or Truth forged a 528 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:07,480 Speaker 1: path for others to follow with her courage. Here is 529 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,680 Speaker 1: Margaret Washington to share a final word on her life. 530 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:17,919 Speaker 1: To me, it's almost like a no brainer. And spiritualism, 531 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,960 Speaker 1: how is that different from spirituality except that people want 532 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:27,239 Speaker 1: to get in touch with loved ones who have gone on, 533 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: and an African spirituality that is taken as a given 534 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,799 Speaker 1: that your loved ones not only do they not leave, 535 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:42,640 Speaker 1: they protect you. They surround you, so they're part of you. 536 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:51,160 Speaker 1: So spiritualism for her was an extension of that. Sojourner 537 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 1: finally reconnected with those loved ones in three when her 538 00:36:55,239 --> 00:37:00,840 Speaker 1: traveling feet finally found rest. Yes, she was oldest, but 539 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,080 Speaker 1: there were others who had walked most of that road 540 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,879 Speaker 1: with her. They might not have had the same destination 541 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 1: all the way, but Sojourner and the Fox Sisters were 542 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:13,480 Speaker 1: travel companions nonetheless, and they were ambassadors for spiritualism, just 543 00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:19,560 Speaker 1: like she was in their own ways. Even after Maggie's confession, 544 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 1: the show went on because just one year later, she 545 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:25,319 Speaker 1: changed her mind and tried to take back whatever she 546 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,279 Speaker 1: had thrown to the wind, but time got away from 547 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:32,200 Speaker 1: her and in Leah would pass away to the other side. 548 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,440 Speaker 1: Their sister Lee riffed unhealed. Here's Nancy Stewart with the 549 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:40,719 Speaker 1: end of their story. Long story short. It's it's kind 550 00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,839 Speaker 1: of sad, but it leaves a lot of questions about her. 551 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: Towards the end of her life, Katie's dying and does 552 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: die of alcoholism. Ultimately, Maggie does die two and they're 553 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,359 Speaker 1: all kinds of mysterious knocks and sounds A person who 554 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,880 Speaker 1: is her nurse, who was not a spiritualist, cannot explain 555 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 1: them at the time of death. At the very end, 556 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,000 Speaker 1: Maggie seemed to be challenging the world to explain the 557 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,320 Speaker 1: power that had flowed through her. She and Kate barely 558 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: outlived their first interpreter, their friend and mentor, Amy Post, 559 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,160 Speaker 1: who had been more than certain than anyone else about 560 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: how to explain that power. In eighty nine, though she 561 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 1: passed away into the summer lands. The last surviving member 562 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: of the Sir Carmonique left New Orleans in and moved 563 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:31,840 Speaker 1: with his children to Jamaica. His letters to relatives in 564 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 1: Chicago show that in both places the deep belief in 565 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,120 Speaker 1: the power of the spirits lived on. He died in 566 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,520 Speaker 1: nineteen four, and his son in law would later donate 567 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,520 Speaker 1: the seance record books of the Sir Carmonique to the 568 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:50,120 Speaker 1: library at the University of New Orleans. Here's Emily Clark, So, 569 00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: the Sir Carmonique, over the course of their roughly twenty 570 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 1: years of practice, bill something like thirty five or thirty 571 00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: seven books with messages. If you stack all of the 572 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: science record books up, it reaches around my rip cage. 573 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,960 Speaker 1: So we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands 574 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,799 Speaker 1: of pages of messages from the world beyond this one. 575 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,960 Speaker 1: Those records are a testament to the faith and conviction 576 00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:24,040 Speaker 1: of the Afro Creole community in New Orleans who poured 577 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,640 Speaker 1: their heart and soul into a new vision of the 578 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,879 Speaker 1: future when the cover closed on their last record book. 579 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,120 Speaker 1: Though it was far from the end, New Orleans spiritual 580 00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:36,360 Speaker 1: churches rose in their wake, led by a generation of 581 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:38,560 Speaker 1: new Black leaders who would be the mothers of a 582 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:44,080 Speaker 1: vibrant religion in the twentieth century. In Chicago, Cora finally 583 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:47,080 Speaker 1: laid her head to rest in nineteen twenty three. She 584 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:50,840 Speaker 1: had traveled, taught, organized, and lectured on the world of 585 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:54,080 Speaker 1: the spirits for more than half a century. Her legacy 586 00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:56,920 Speaker 1: still lives on in countless ways too, and the efforts 587 00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,440 Speaker 1: she made to lay a foundation for the Spiritualists of 588 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,239 Speaker 1: the future held true. The Morris Pratt Institutes and the 589 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:08,560 Speaker 1: National Spiritualist Association of Churches are still active today. Yes, 590 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 1: some things do pass away, but others stand the test 591 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:18,880 Speaker 1: of time, especially when they're rooted in something eternal hope. 592 00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,160 Speaker 1: Victoria Woodhall found a new home in England. She found 593 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,440 Speaker 1: a new husband too, and a new life. When the 594 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,480 Speaker 1: British Museum opened a display that explored the Beach or 595 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,040 Speaker 1: Tilton scandal that had destroyed Victoria's place in New York, 596 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,040 Speaker 1: her husband John took the museum to court for libel. 597 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:50,400 Speaker 1: Victoria was ready to be Mrs Martin. Now no more scandal, 598 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:54,560 Speaker 1: no more battles, no more smears. But even if you 599 00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,720 Speaker 1: believe there is no death for the soul, the body 600 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:02,120 Speaker 1: can't survive on belief alone. In nine seven, John Martin 601 00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,080 Speaker 1: had been sick. He wanted to see if island air 602 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:07,480 Speaker 1: would help him heal, so he set out to spend 603 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,320 Speaker 1: the winter in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast 604 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,600 Speaker 1: of Africa. But when he did, he left Victoria back 605 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:17,480 Speaker 1: home in England. She had also been ill, maybe even 606 00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:20,120 Speaker 1: too sick to travel. When he was on his way out, 607 00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:24,239 Speaker 1: John wrote to his father that Victoria was very much depressed, 608 00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,439 Speaker 1: just like Elisha Caine. Traveling away from Maggie Fox into 609 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:32,680 Speaker 1: the frozen North, John left, but anxiety nod at him, 610 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:36,080 Speaker 1: and he wrote Victoria often during his winter stay. In 611 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:38,200 Speaker 1: one of his last letters, he said he wondered if 612 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,240 Speaker 1: it would ever reach her. I am out of the world, 613 00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:47,160 Speaker 1: he wrote. There is no telegraph, no newspapers. A flurry 614 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:50,680 Speaker 1: of lonely telegrams from Victoria were finally answered in March 615 00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:53,640 Speaker 1: when he sent a note saying I will sail tonight 616 00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,000 Speaker 1: for the most remote of all the islands and be 617 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,040 Speaker 1: cut off from the world for ten days. He promised 618 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:01,080 Speaker 1: that he would come home to her afterwards because he 619 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:03,759 Speaker 1: wasn't getting any better, But he was cut off from 620 00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:07,319 Speaker 1: the world more severely than he had imagined. John died 621 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:12,160 Speaker 1: far from home on March. His doctors sent Victoria a 622 00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: telegram with the devastating news. But if she still believed 623 00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:18,680 Speaker 1: that messages crossing an enormous gulf could be a comfort, 624 00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:22,440 Speaker 1: there is no record of it. On his death, Victoria 625 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:26,360 Speaker 1: inherited John's wealth, including shares in his bank and his 626 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,960 Speaker 1: family lands, and then she retreated. One note that she 627 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,640 Speaker 1: wrote to herself explores the devastation that she clearly felt. 628 00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:39,040 Speaker 1: Your temperament is of an active type, she wrote. Maybe 629 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: she was thinking back to her younger years criss crossing 630 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:44,439 Speaker 1: America in a carriage with James Blood. Are going toe 631 00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:48,320 Speaker 1: to toe with New York City's hypocritical ministers and corrupt tycoons. 632 00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:53,839 Speaker 1: But I feel a sad, tired feeling. She continued a lonesomeness, 633 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,480 Speaker 1: so she retreated to the Tutor's style mansion that had 634 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: been empty for ten years. From there, she had a 635 00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,399 Speaker 1: view over the Severn Valley and the Cotswalds. She even 636 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,160 Speaker 1: started driving throughout the countryside to keep her mind off 637 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,440 Speaker 1: the dark moments of her past, and by all accounts, 638 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:14,880 Speaker 1: she fell in love with cars. Here's Mary Gabriel once again. 639 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,600 Speaker 1: John Martin, her husband had a family property in Gloucestershire 640 00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,480 Speaker 1: and the west of England, and she literally would move 641 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:25,480 Speaker 1: there and live in this grand house up on a 642 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,840 Speaker 1: hill and wage for the rest of her life, wage 643 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:33,799 Speaker 1: very small battles for education, for driving, for women's rights 644 00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,800 Speaker 1: to drive, of all things. She got involved in minor 645 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,399 Speaker 1: scuffles with local authorities. She was still that fighters, still 646 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:44,960 Speaker 1: Victoria Woodhall, but her days of trying to change basically 647 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,879 Speaker 1: America and the world were well past her. She went 648 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: on to become the first woman to take driving tours 649 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,640 Speaker 1: through London's Hyde Park along with her daughter. She drove 650 00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:58,960 Speaker 1: all throughout England and France. But she wasn't done forming 651 00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:03,640 Speaker 1: societies either. Her Lady's Automobile Club attracted others from her 652 00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,400 Speaker 1: new social set, including the Duchess of Sutherland. Their first 653 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 1: parade of cars drove right past Buckingham Palace. After the 654 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,640 Speaker 1: First World War, though Victoria finally laid those activities to rest, 655 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 1: her sister Tenney had also married into English money, but 656 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,640 Speaker 1: she continued to travel and speak. She even went back 657 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:27,840 Speaker 1: to America to confront Theodore Roosevelt about women's suffrage. But 658 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,760 Speaker 1: Victoria had begun to shut herself off from the world 659 00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:35,440 Speaker 1: and its troubles. One of her gardeners remembered that once, 660 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,440 Speaker 1: when he was weeding the path outside her mansion, he 661 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,440 Speaker 1: heard a strange tapping sound ring out. He looked up 662 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,880 Speaker 1: to see Victoria standing inside, knocking on the glass of 663 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,320 Speaker 1: the window. She shouted at him through the window pane, saying, 664 00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: those weeds had the courage to grow in the path 665 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: of man, and you murdered them. Maybe it was a 666 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:57,719 Speaker 1: hint at the place she felt she had begun to 667 00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,839 Speaker 1: inhabit in the world, somewhere between the world and it's 668 00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:04,839 Speaker 1: untamed edges. She had been uncontrollable in the face of 669 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,800 Speaker 1: men who wanted to clear the land, always coming back, 670 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:13,279 Speaker 1: always stirring up life where others only saw death. When 671 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:16,960 Speaker 1: death finally came for Victoria in ninety seven, she was 672 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:20,040 Speaker 1: eighty eight years old. Her ashes were carried into the 673 00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:23,320 Speaker 1: North Atlantic and scattered into the chasm of the ocean. 674 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:29,760 Speaker 1: Here's Mary Gabriel once again. The war she was waging 675 00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,960 Speaker 1: then she could be waging today basically almost using the 676 00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,920 Speaker 1: same language, which is really both sad and kind of interesting. 677 00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:41,239 Speaker 1: I think that she's a very pertinent figure for us 678 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:43,720 Speaker 1: to study at this moment in that period of history 679 00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,960 Speaker 1: is a fascinating one for us to look at because 680 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:48,719 Speaker 1: of the changes that were occurring, and the fact that 681 00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,920 Speaker 1: where society wasn't eighteen forty eight, no one could have 682 00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:58,080 Speaker 1: predicted where it would have been even in eighteen seventy one. 683 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:01,960 Speaker 1: Last story. When Victor Maria had sued the British Museum 684 00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,440 Speaker 1: back in the eighteen nineties, she had taken the stand 685 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 1: to give testimony. Naturally, the museum's lawyers peppered her with questions. 686 00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:14,680 Speaker 1: Was her spiritualist Guardian Demosthenes? They asked, just as Theodore 687 00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,120 Speaker 1: Tilton had written, I do not think I shall tell 688 00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,760 Speaker 1: you who he is or what he is, she replied. 689 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,000 Speaker 1: Then they asked her, would it be true that she 690 00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:27,799 Speaker 1: took a prominent part in all the movements social and 691 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:31,919 Speaker 1: political that we're going on in America? Yes, she told 692 00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:36,160 Speaker 1: them I had, would she say? They asked that her 693 00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:38,600 Speaker 1: life was a career of what would be called a 694 00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:44,240 Speaker 1: very remarkable kind. It was, she said, a very laborious career. 695 00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:47,719 Speaker 1: They then asked if she had at one time been 696 00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:53,160 Speaker 1: a clairvoyant. Not at one time, she answered, all the time, 697 00:46:54,239 --> 00:47:24,080 Speaker 1: and still are they asked, Victoria nodded, and still am. 698 00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:27,560 Speaker 1: Today's episode was the final leg of this season's exploration 699 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,080 Speaker 1: of the spiritualist movement, bringing our journey to an end. 700 00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,360 Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed the results of our team's hard work, 701 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,600 Speaker 1: you're written reviews and star ratings would be very welcome 702 00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:40,680 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. Your kind words go a long way 703 00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,920 Speaker 1: toward helping newcomers tap that subscribe button, and all of 704 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,719 Speaker 1: that helps the show grow. It's been an honor to 705 00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:49,000 Speaker 1: be your guide over the past few weeks, and I 706 00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:51,800 Speaker 1: look forward to our next tour through the darker corners 707 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:55,120 Speaker 1: of history. But we're not quite done with the story 708 00:47:55,239 --> 00:48:00,160 Speaker 1: of season two. Starting on January, we'll be releasing all 709 00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:04,120 Speaker 1: eight of our incredible historian interviews in full. These are 710 00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:08,400 Speaker 1: powerful conversations with the leading scholars in the world of spiritualism, 711 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,040 Speaker 1: and the insight and details they bring to the topic 712 00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:14,120 Speaker 1: are perfect for those who want more. Just leave your 713 00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,640 Speaker 1: podcast app subscribed to this show, and those interview episodes 714 00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:22,000 Speaker 1: will arrive automatically every week, as will news about season three. 715 00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,440 Speaker 1: In fact, if you stick around after this brief sponsor break, 716 00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:32,720 Speaker 1: I'll give you a taste of what's to come. Next 717 00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:38,800 Speaker 1: time on un obscured Spirit Communication is ancient. It's probably 718 00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,160 Speaker 1: as old as mankind. It goes way back into the 719 00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:48,080 Speaker 1: Greek philosophers, many Asian religions, Native Americans. They have pet seances, 720 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:54,360 Speaker 1: the idea that your beloved animals continue with you through eternity. Personally, 721 00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:59,200 Speaker 1: I can think of no stronger argument for belief in spiritualism. 722 00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:03,640 Speaker 1: Benjamin Ekland was a favorite medium for the communication of 723 00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:10,000 Speaker 1: scientific information, and the notion that spirit mediums could communicate 724 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:16,319 Speaker 1: scientific information was understood as another kind of evidence of 725 00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:22,920 Speaker 1: spirit presence. They didn't just focus on machine to make 726 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:25,400 Speaker 1: contact between the living and the dead, but they also 727 00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:29,640 Speaker 1: put their minds at work to try to get inspiration 728 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:34,879 Speaker 1: spirit help to invent new machines that would help everybody. 729 00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,760 Speaker 1: They take up nineteenth century Victorian notions of the virtues 730 00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:44,240 Speaker 1: of white female womanhood that allow certain kinds of power 731 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,280 Speaker 1: for women and girls to speak in public, but also 732 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,480 Speaker 1: a range of masculinities for men who might have sat 733 00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:53,840 Speaker 1: outside the strictures or boundaries of what was possible for 734 00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:58,840 Speaker 1: Victorian men. They believe that humanity writ large was also 735 00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:05,040 Speaker 1: on a ladder of progress, and figures like John Brown 736 00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:07,720 Speaker 1: and Tis Sultan over tour. They helped push humanity along 737 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:12,560 Speaker 1: the ladder of progress. People from all levels of society 738 00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:16,680 Speaker 1: used religion as kind of an umbrella to either hide under, 739 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:19,640 Speaker 1: to seek salace from, or to use as a mask. 740 00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:26,160 Speaker 1: So Journer, when she wasn't on the platform, she liked 741 00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:29,560 Speaker 1: to sit at the foot of the platform. That way 742 00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:34,880 Speaker 1: she could interject things she could say, Can I say something? 743 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,360 Speaker 1: Un Obscured was created by me Aaron Manky and produced 744 00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:59,000 Speaker 1: by Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Josh Thane in partnership 745 00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:02,160 Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. Research and writing for this season 746 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:04,400 Speaker 1: is all the work of my right hand man Carl 747 00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:08,160 Speaker 1: Nellis and the brilliant Chad Lawson composed the brand new soundtrack. 748 00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:12,560 Speaker 1: Learn more about our contributing historians, source material and links 749 00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:16,960 Speaker 1: to our other shows over at history unobscured dot com 750 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:27,800 Speaker 1: and until next time, thanks for listening. Unobscured as a 751 00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:30,160 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Monkey. For more 752 00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:32,399 Speaker 1: podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, 753 00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,000 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.