Spiritualism—a belief system based on communication with spirits—became a massive female-led social & religious movement from the 1840s to the 1920s. It was popularized by the clairvoyant Fox sisters, who traveled widely to perform seances. #WyrdWednesday 🧵 - ThreadSky

sarahnour.bsky.social • 5 days ago

Spiritualism—a belief system based on communication with spirits—became a massive female-led social & religious movement from the 1840s to the 1920s. It was popularized by the clairvoyant Fox sisters, who traveled widely to perform seances. #WyrdWednesday 🧵

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sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

The Spiritualist Movement provided public speaking opportunities for women, so many female mediums seized the opportunity to speak about issues like women's suffrage & the abolition of slavery, claiming these ideas came from the spirit realm. #WyrdWednesday

sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

Victoria Woodhull—political activist & the first woman to run for president—joined the Spiritualist Movement in the 1870s. Her detractors dubbed her Mrs. Satan, not only for her belief in spirits, but in free love, women's suffrage, the abolition of slavery. #WyrdWednesday

sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

In 1857, Sojourner Truth—who escaped slavery to become an abolitionist & women's rights activist—sold her possessions to move to Harmonia, a Spiritualist utopian community established in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1850. #WyrdWednesday

sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

Mary Todd Lincoln became involved in Spiritualism in 1862, when her son Willie died of typhoid fever. Her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated three years later, & she began hosting seances at the White House. #WyrdWednesday

sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

Flora Wellman, mother of author Jack London, was a Spiritualist who claimed she could channel spirits & predict the future. She conducted seances, advocated for human rights, & worked as an assistant for the feminist publisher Amanda Slocum. #WyrdWednesday

sarahnour.bsky.social•5 days ago

Cora L.V. Scott—one of the best-known mediums of the Spiritualist movement—was raised in a community that believed in abolitionism & nonviolence. At age 12 she began having trances where she'd write messages from the dead, & by 15 was performing for audiences. #WyrdWednesday

beachwalker11.bsky.social•4 days ago

The Fox Sisters honed their skills at home in Hydesville, NY, just a few miles from where I sit.

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