Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America is a book that focuses on the development of Spiritualism, the progression of the Early Women’s Rights Movement, and important contributors of the two. Ann Braude wrote this with the intent of proving and exploiting “the compatibility of women’s rights and Spiritualism as a manifestation of the intersection of religion and gender at the deepest levels of American culture.”(xv) Braudes second goal of the book is to legitimize Spiritualism as a religion. Both are said to have began in 1848; Spiritualism is a religion based on the alleged communication with the dead through “mediums” which represents immortality. Women’s rights covers topics from equal economic opportunity and prostitution, to labor and education. She believes that every religion has some participation in forming gender roles, but that Spiritualism played the most effective role in developing women’s rights. Throughout this book, Braude supports her claims by sharing the accounts of numerous people, their religious transitions to Spiritualism, their Spiritualistic roles in the development of the Early Women’s Rights Movement, and even mentions some of the many Spiritualist publications.
The book begins with the founding of the Spiritualism movement by Isaac and Amy Post after they heard the story of the Fox sisters, who claimed to be mediums that communicate with spirits through “rappings.” To the Posts, this signified evidence of life after death so they started meetings to share their new found “religion.” Following this, many mediums were discovered and the idea of Spiritualism continued to grow. The book advances with different incidences where people were abandoning their previous “church” and devoting themselves to Spiritualism. Later, comes the development of different Spiritualist conventions and women gaining some rights through it. It talks about the different roles women received, like mediumship and trance speakers, and how they were breaking barriers by speaking at these conventions, even if it was in an passive state. Next, it talks about the marriage institution and different ways women are basically forced into these marriages, which leads to different topics addressed by women’s rights: free love and marriage reform. Braude continues to mention different avenues in which Spiritualists are trying to go about reform, the public’s’ reactions, and the progress made.
Personal Reflection
Personally, I was raised a christian, but have never had much interest in US history or religious history. I knew that spiritualism was a thing and that in the past women were denied many fundamental rights. I had learned about women’s suffrage in high school on a surface level but never learned about connections it had with religion, and it wasn’t something I had a desire to research outside of class. After reading Radical Spirits, I realized that there was so much more to the history of women’s rights than what is taught in high-schools. I never truly realized how oppressed women were, not only in the church setting but also in the secular world, and now I have a much larger appreciation for the historical figures who worked so hard for equal rights. Equal rights remain a major topic coming up in political discussions, even today. If more people became educated on the history of women’s rights, including all of the people, movements, and religions that played key roles in the development, then there could be more insightful and practical discussions and understandings of equal rights today, instead of people just talking based off of the surface level education they received solely to pass state tests. I tend to stay out of politics and have never had much to say when discussing women’s rights, because I have never felt educated enough to chime in on discussions. Since reading this book, I feel more comfortable with my knowledge and ability of having an educated discussion on these rights and the history of women. To me this book represents a crash course on women’s rights and spiritualism, and the correlation of the two.
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