What does American spiritualism, Black mediums and feminism have in common? Surprisingly, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the overlapping ideas were very much interlinked.
American spiritualism was a movement that was catapulted into the zeitgeist in 1848 New York, when the Fox Sisters first heard a mysterious supernatural spirit ‘rapping’s’ in their bedroom, although the ideas of communing with the dead had long pre-existed. Spiritualism itself is defined as a ‘system of belief or religious practice based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, especially through mediums,’ and is still in practice today, combining elements of Christianity, Hindu and Buddhist ideology, and for better or for worse, elements of traditional Native American rituals, with the main covenant being that the spirits are a fundamental part of our existence.
Spiritualism often called to the marginalised members of society, due to its outwardly welcoming philosophies. Anyone with the ‘gift’ of talking to the dead could become a medium, and therefore it became a suitable profession for women, of all races, most often giving opportunities to Black women.
Sojourner Truth was born into enslavement in New York, before managing to escape with her young daughter, and was eventually even able to recover her son from her former master, becoming the first Black woman to ever win a case against a white man. After winning the case, Truth became a fervent Christian until 1856, when she became fascinated with Spiritualism, becoming part of a community in 1867. When she held seances as a medium, she would enter a trance, and utilising the large public audiences she gathered, she would typically give a speech about the necessity in promoting equality in the United States, notably the right of the vote for women. Being able to commune with spirits gave Truth the opportunity to talk to a predominantly white audience, that was exceedingly rare for a Black woman at the time. Around a similar time, Rebecca Cox Johnson, a free Black woman, emulated Truth’s career path, joining the quaker sect before converting to spiritualism, however, instead of preaching to a white audience, Jackson held seances in her own home, allowing a meeting place for many like-minded Black women. Yet still, she used her voice when she channelled spirit to challenge the rampant sexism and racism at the time, and provided a comforting, and to an extent rebellious community for those who were otherwise marginalised from many white religious communities.
It was not just through rhetoric and speech that female Black mediums were able to captivate an audience. Harriet Jacobs, another previously enslaved woman, used the newly invented ‘spirit photographs’ which would capture a supposed ‘spirit’ in ectoplasmic forms. Jacobs published her photos, along with an autobiographical publication of her life under a pen name, shedding a light on racism and her experience growing up within it, becoming a prominent early feminist and abolitionist.
Whilst there were only a few prevalent Black mediums in the 19th century, by the 20th century, Black spiritualists broke away from the white American Spiritualist Church, to create a new, looser organisation of spiritualist churches after the National Spiritualist Association of Churches expelled a predominate amount of its Black members, with the rest facing heavy discrimination due to segregation laws. Most of these new African American churches owed their foundation to yet another Black female medium, Leafy Anderson, who rose to prominence as a medium in the 19th century. Despite, at the time, the majority of pastors being male, Anderson saw what was happening in her religion, and founded a new spiritualist movement in New Orleans, which became ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘spiritualist,’ and held her own services. Her work promoting equality for women in the spiritual church end there, but instead she trained many like-minded women in her practices for leadership. She also allowed Black jazz musicians to play in her church, despite it being reviled by many Christian churches at the time, who believed it was satanic. When she died, she left her churches to Mother Catherine Seals, and inspired a large spread of Spiritual churches among different states.
Despite the eventual separation of the Spiritual and Spiritualist churches, it cannot be denied that Black female mediums were not only popular within the communities, but integral to changing the religion’s history. These women were feminists, grappling with issues ahead of their time, and were able to harness a public platform to promote the equality for which they fought.
