How the spiritualist movement was born in the United States: secrets and confessions of the Fox sisters

A little wooden house lost in Hydesville became the center of a phenomenon that no one could ignore. Over there, two girls They claimed to hear knocks inside the walls, as if something scary I would like to talk to you.

Every night the sounds became more recurrent, and with them the tension within the house. The Fox family tried to explain it in a logical way, but the answers were increasingly disturbing: shadows, gusts of cold air and a presence that seemed to imitate every gesture.

When Kate y Margaret They discovered that the blows answered the questions, fear became certainty. What started as a game became a social phenomenon.

A house full of history

The cabin where the foxes lived I was already having strange episodes. Years before, the Bell family had hosted a traveling salesman who disappeared without a trace.

Since then, Those who lived there claimed to see fleeting figures and feel inexplicable cold gusts.. Even the maid, Lucrecia, claimed to have seen a man in a black coat in the kitchen, just before the family left the place.

The Fox family’s log cabin in Hydesville. Photo: Facebook Hydesville Memorial Park

The Foxes moved in knowing that the house was reputed to be haunted.although the father ruled out any superstition. The girls, Margaret and Kate, claimed that something was tearing off their sheets while they were sleeping, footsteps were heard around the house, and they were woken up by a cold hand touching their faces.

The mother also heard the footsteps going down to the basement. The only one who didn’t believe was John Foxuntil one October 31 he heard that every knock he hit on the wall was responded to by another.

It was that day when the girls invoked the spirit who was called Mr. Splitfoot. Kate clapped twice and the room clapped back two more. With the parents and neighbors, who approached with curiosity, in the room, the knocks answered questions: age, names, dates and even about the existence of a deceased son.

The family’s certainty was confirmed when they found human remains under the house: a skull fragment with hair and pieces of cloth.

From the cabin to the stage

scared, The Foxes left the cabin and the girls moved to Rochester with their older sisterLeah.

There they were presented to the quaker community -a Christian sect that believed in the «Inner Light» and rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy-, especially to the Post couple, who took the case seriously.

The Fox family: the three sisters and their parents. Photo: Pinterest @setseruk

Mrs. Post searched the sisters from head to toe to rule out tricks, but they still witnessed responses that could not be explained. After talk to the spirit of your deceased daughterbecame his first followers.

In November 1848, The Posts rented a theater for the girls to show their skills. Before going on stage, they were stripped naked to verify that they were not hiding deception mechanisms. Nothing appeared. The public was divided between astonishment and rejection, to the point that they needed police assistance to protect them.

From then on, Kate, Margaret and Leah became the image of a new belief: spiritualism. They received dozens of people a day and charged a dollar per consultation.

In New York, Andrew Jackson Davisa key figure of the movementjoined them and consolidated his public presence. Writers, journalists, abolitionists and influential personalities passed by its candle-lit round tables, where the sisters claimed to enter a trance and speak with the afterlife.

Fame brought with it an unexpected fall

The growth of spiritualism multiplied fakers and fraudulent sessions. The sisters toured the United States demonstrating their ability, while facing persecution, hostility and the pressure of maintaining a phenomenon that surpassed his own private life.

Love marked a turning point in his story. Margaret married Elisha Kent Kanea skeptic who convinced her to stay away from spiritualism. After becoming a widow, she fell into alcohol and he swore not to return to the sessions.

Kate also started drinkingoverwhelmed by thousands of families seeking to contact their loved ones after the civil war.

The Fox sisters offered group seances. Photo: Pinterest @pixelsuperhero

In 1888 everything changed. Margaret received money from New York World and publicly declared that it was all a trick: He spoke of an apple tied to a small rope to provoke blows, and how the joints of his feet creaked to surprise the audience.

In a packed theater, she lifted her skirt and showed how she generated sounds. The confession took all the movement’s believers by surprise..

Kate and Leah denied Margaret’s statements and claimed that she was acting out of resentment. A year later, Margaret recanted, although it was too late: her reputation did not recover.

A tragic ending and a mystery that does not cease

Between 1890 and 1893 the three sisters died: Leah first, Kate later and Margaret the following year, all affected by years of wear and tear and alcoholism. But his story did not end there.

Eleven years later, some children found human bones in the ruins of the Hydesville cabin, right where they pointed out the peddler was buried.

The cabin is a museum of spiritualism. Photo: Facebook Hydesville Memorial Park

The evidence reactivated questions that never had a clear answer. How did the sisters know about the man? Why were the noises and shadows before their arrival? When does the experience stop being a trick and become pure sensitivity?

What is clear is that, fraud or not, The Fox sisters shaped modern spiritualism and offered thousands a glimpse of hope. which, in the 19th century, seemed to be difficult to reject: death was not the end and there was still a way to listen to those who were no longer here.