We gathered silently that night, under a full moon, outside the front entrance to the former home of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Largely remaining silent, we’d glance at each other every now and again and a nervous laugh would escape, quickly muffled, seeming irreverent somehow.
We were there to learn about the beginning of the spiritualism movement in America and the use of the séance lead by mediums as its primary tool.
“The full moon? Isn’t that a bit of a cliché?” One woman asked.
“Yeah, I thought that had more to do with werewolves,” a man answered.
“Anyone have any silver bullets on them, just in case we didn’t read the invitation clearly?” Another voice joined the conversation.
“Oh darn, I knew I forgot something,” someone replied. “Got the bullets – forgot the gun. If a werewolf appears do you think I could kill it by just throwing them at him?”
We’d laughed heartily then, yet to approach the actual house. Now, as our guide, face glowing in the yellow light from the lantern he held, began to speak there was no joking or sounds of any kind. We waited for him to begin as his gaze lighted on first one face then another.
Introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s House
“You stand before the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, her Husband Calvin and their seven children, only three of whom lived to adulthood,” he began in a solemn voice. “I cannot promise you will experience anything out of the ordinary tonight. You will however, hopefully learn a bit about the beginnings of the Spiritualist Movement and the role it played in the way Harriet Beecher Stowe coped with loss.
At this point, all eyes were focused on him. The stage was set, and there would clearly be no more jokes for the remainder of the evening.
Séances as a Means to Learn the Fate of a Loved One
Opening the door with a key, we entered a foyer lit only with candles including those in the Victorian chandelier about us which cast an uneven glow. He ushered us into a parlor off of the entrance hall which was bathed in shadow, a table at its center with sepia tone pictures in silver frames set on top. These were suffused in yet more candle light, seemingly drawn inward to bathe the pictures in a subtle radiance.
Our guide explained that what we saw before us was a usual setup for a séance. The pictures were for the medium to focus on to enable her to contact the spirit of that individual. Those who sat around the table were not necessarily all looking for an answer, but were there to lend their own energy to help the medium draw the intended spirit to her. Thus, usually close friends or family filled the additional seats. A “planchette" -- an earlier version of the Ouija board -- was set up and the guide raised it demonstrating how it had been used.
“Much like the Ouija board this was the instrument used by Stowe and her fellow spiritualists to ask questions and receive what they believed were messages from the dead once the medium had drawn forth the spirit,” he stated.
The True Beginnings of Spiritualism
The guide explained that spiritualism began during a time of religiosity in this country and that it had not begun as a means to see into the future or to demonstrate a medium’s alleged abilities in various paranormal talents to gain fame or fortune. In it's intended form the original Spiritualism movement first became popular in the late 1800s during a time when many believed that in order to be allowed into Heaven one must be a confirmed Christian. Thus, when loved ones died, especially children prior to the age of confirmation, or those who had begun to question the validity of Christian beliefs, relatives often would seek out a medium to hold a séance in order to communicate with that spirit in the hopes of confirming they’d succeeded in getting into Heaven.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Participation in the Spiritualism Movement
The loss of the Stowe’s infant son, heralded Harriet’s participation in the movement. The guide passed around a picture of the baby who seemed to be sleeping peacefully in his crib wrapped in a decorative blanket. Saddened smiles alighted on our faces as viewing that beautiful child knowing his fate.
Stowe’s interest in Spiritualism was likely fueled by the desire to learn the fates in the next world of the 4 children she had lost. Having been raised in a strict Calvinistic home, despite moving away from this upbringing somewhat ensuring they had reached Heaven despite how or when they’d died would have been a paramount concern of hers, creating anxiety and at times depression.
“Uncertainty about something important to us, often causes such emotions to arise and if there’s no way to address this uncertainty these feelings can become incapacitating,” our guide added.
Spiritualism also became popular among women and they were the leaders and played the most important role in contacting those in the next world as Mediums were always women. At a time when women were looking for a platform to gain recognition for having skills other than mother and wife, this became an important draw for many women of the time.
Stowe’s Use of Spiritualism to Attempt Contact with her Lost Children
Stowe’s third child, (the first two children had been twin girls), her son Henry Ellis died in a swimming accident when he was 19 years old. While his mother attended séances to attempt to reach him, she knew he had been a follower of the Christian faith and thus believed he was in Heaven, thus she didn’t feel a need or desperation as she did when attempting to learn about two of her later children. Her husband believed he had received a message from this son when a guitar in the room they held séances in suddenly sounded several chords. Harriet informed him to keep the bible and prayer with him whenever in the room should he want to contact their son in the hopes they would receive a clearer message. This displays the strong connection that existed between religious beliefs and Spiritualism in its beginnings.
Her fourth child Frederick William enlisted to fight in the Civil War, subsequently turning to alcohol to cope with the pain of a wound he’d received. His family was unable to help him stop drinking and he went to California to run one of the family businesses which he ruined due to his addiction. Shortly after this, his mother received a letter in which Henry stated his life was worthless and expressed his desire to commit suicide though adding he never would do so knowing the pain it would cause his parents.
He disappeared shortly after she’d received this letter and historians presumed he died shortly after writing this. As hard as the death of her first son had been on her, the disappearance of Henry caused Stowe to feel bereft due to fear he’d actually carried out his wish to commit suicide, which would deny him a place in heaven according to Christian doctrine. However, she also believed that whatever had happened to him had been caused by his addiction and even if he had died by his own hand he wasn’t responsible, yet was still desperate to learn that he had successfully been taken into Heaven.
Although they held séances every year on his birthday, his parents never received a message from him, something that heavily effected Stowe’s mood and writings. Frederick became the inspiration for two characters in two of Stowe’s subsequent books which she presented alcoholism as an illness. This was a revolutionary stance at this point in time when the addiction was considered a moral lacking or failure and was believed part of an individual’s makeup implying the entire individual was lacking in moral and ethical character which was impossible to correct.
The Stowe’s next child was a daughter who would come to further strengthen a tenant of the Spiritualism movement which stated contact with the spirit world should never be used to predict the future, as this was forbidden in Christianity and believed to bring disaster to the individual who attempted to do so. As a teenager, this daughter Georgiana May and a girlfriend where playing with the Planchette board at the friend’s house and Georgina asked how old she would live to be.
Given her ancestors had generally lived long lives she believed she’d receive a positive answer indicating a similar lifespan for herself. When she read the answer she tore up the paper it had been written on and fled the house of her friend. While it was never learned what had been written on the paper, Georiana was said to suffer from “nerves” beginning around this time. She became addicted to morphine following the birth of her son, claiming chronic pain, and died from Septicemia obtained from bacteria on the needle used to inject the substance, at the age of 47.
Some attributed this addiction in part to the anxiety which increased significantly following the birth of her child due to her fear that being a mother signaled she was getting older and the message she’d received using the planchette board years before had predicted a premature death. Stowe again was heartbroken at the loss of yet another child and as before attempted to reach her during séances. She didn’t fear however that she’d not be allowed to enter heaven as she had died from an infection, which was not in and of itself a sin. However, having now lost three children, 2 to addictions Stowe’s mood continued to worsen and her longing to find out how her lost children fared in the next world was a constant worry for her.
The child Stowe referred to as her “sunshine child”, Samuel Charles, died of cholera as an infant, the first of her children she lost, which left her devastated and seeking an antidote for her pain which she found in Spiritualism. Worried as the child had died prior to the age of confirmation, she went to many mediums in an attempt to learn his fate after death yet never received a message. With this death she began to experience “irresolvable tension”, which was likely what set her on a firm course within the spiritualist movement. This death also resulted in her empathizing with enslaved mothers who lost their children on the auction block forever, she channeled her anxiety and grief into her first book which would set a nation on fire, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
While the twins survived Stowe, her final child, Charles Stowe was the only one of her children to survive her and have a family, becoming a minister and later writing a biography of his mother.
In conclusion, the Spiritualist Movement was originally based on religious belief and attempts to contact the spirit world were only intended to find out the fate of a loved one in the afterlife. Attempting to predict ones future was strongly forbidden as against God’s plan. It also became a way for women to find respect outside the home. Thus for Harriet Beecher Stowe and many other women, it became a means to experience increased self-worth as a woman in a man’s world as well as a method of coping with the uncertainty about the fate of lost loved ones, which frequently resulted in negative mood states.
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