In the late 1840s, an unassuming New York farmhouse became the unlikely epicenter of a new religious movement that would captivate the Western world.
It was here that two young sisters’ claim to communicate with the spirit of a murdered peddler would precipitate the Spiritualist movement.
While the sisters’ lives would come to be marked by misfortune and scandal, their fascinating story endures and leaves behind a complex legacy.
The Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, were the unlikely catalysts for the birth of the Spiritualist movement in the United States and Europe. Their claims of communicating with the dead had a profound impact on the cultural and religious landscape of 19th century America and inspired a wave of seers, mediums, and spiritualist practices that challenged long-held beliefs about the afterlife and the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds.
The Birth of Spiritualism
In the late 1840s, the small town of Hydesville, New York became the unlikely birthplace of the Spiritualist Movement.
The story began in 1848 when the Fox family – consisting of John, Margaret, and their two young daughters, Maggie and Kate – reported hearing strange knocking sounds in their home.
The Fox sisters, then just 14 and 11 years old, claimed to have established communication with the spirit responsible for the sounds, or “rappings.” The sisters alleged that the noises – which seemed to respond to the family’s questions – were caused by the ghost of a peddler who had been murdered and buried in the home’s basement years earlier.
Not long after the rappings began, the Fox family moved out of their Hydesville home sending Maggie and Kate to live with their older sister, Leah Fox Fish, in Rochester.
Rather than being the end of the story, the Fox sisters’ supernatural tale soon captured the attention of the Rochester community.
Community leaders Isaac and Amy Post invited the girls to demonstrate their ability at a gathering at the Post’s home and, convinced by the demonstration, proceeded to rent a large hall where 400 people came to witness the Fox girls communicate with the spirits.
In short order, Maggie, Kate, and their sister Leah (who had also proved to be a medium) embarked on a professional tour demonstrating their abilities by conducting séances and public performances that further fueled the public’s fascination.
The sisters’ public demonstration of living humans communicating with the dead inspired other seers and prophets, such as Andrew Jackson Davis (who became “known as the ‘John the Baptist of Modern Spiritualism‘”) and helped spark the Spiritualist movement in the United States and Europe.
The Spiritualist Movement
The Fox sisters’ experiences marked the beginnings of the Spiritualist movement, which quickly gained widespread popularity throughout the English-speaking world.
Spiritualists believed that the dead could communicate with the living through mediums and various paranormal phenomena.
Spiritualists didn’t simply believe that contact with spirits was possible. They also believed that spirits were more advanced than humans and could provide guidance on moral, ethical, and theological matters. This led to belief in “spirit guides” – specific spirits that adherents would rely upon for spiritual direction.
The Spiritualist movement flourished for several decades without formal organization or canonical texts. It gained cohesion through periodicals, trance lectures, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of skilled mediums. Spiritualist churches, séance circles, and publications emerged, offering individuals the chance to explore the mysteries of the afterlife.
The Spiritualist movement attracted a diverse following, from intellectuals and social reformers to the bereaved seeking contact with lost loved ones. Interestingly, many prominent Spiritualists were women, and the movement often aligned with causes like the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage.
One of the most enduringly famous spiritualists is undoubtedly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) the renowned Scottish writer and physician best known as the creator of the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes. Born in Edinburgh, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and later worked as a physician before turning his focus to writing.
In his later years Doyle became a prominent and devoted advocate for Spiritualism. He firmly believed in the authenticity of communication with the spirits of the dead and in the validity of Spiritualist practices such as mediumship and séances.
He used his fame and influence to promote and defend the Spiritualist cause, authoring several books on the topic, including “The New Revelation” (1918) and “The Vital Message” (1919), in which he argued passionately for the existence of life after death.
Doyle’s unwavering support for Spiritualism often brought him into conflict with skeptics and critics, but he remained steadfast in his convictions until his death in 1930. His deep commitment to the Spiritualist movement is considered a significant aspect of his legacy, alongside his celebrated literary achievements.
The Legacy of the Fox Sisters
In 1888 Maggie denounced Spiritualism in an interview with the New York World.
Maggie confessed that her and her sister’s communication with the dead had been a hoax resulting from a childhood prank that had spun out of control, writes Becky Little in History. She publicly demonstrated how she and her sister Kate had made the now infamous “rapping” noises by cracking their knuckles, toes, and other joints.
Maggie’s confession was but one of many instances in which “spiritualist mediums were caught faking,” the History article continues.
But despite the frauds people never stopped believing.
One year later, Maggie recanted her confession, insisting, according to a 2012 article in Smithsonian, that “her spirit guides had beseeched her to do so.”
And then, in 1904, children playing in the sisters’ childhood home in Hydesville discovered parts of a skeleton between the ground and the home’s crumbling cedar walls. A doctor was consulted and estimated the bones to be approximately fifty years old …
… about the same age as the peddler rumored to have been murdered in the farmhouse five years before the Fox girls began receiving spiritual messages.