Spiritualism, 1840-1930 : Victorian Concepts, Volume 1: Spiritualism: Health, Race, and Human Variation

Citation

Ferguson C (ed.) (2014) Spiritualism, 1840-1930 : Victorian Concepts, Volume 1: Spiritualism: Health, Race, and Human Variation. Victorian Concepts. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Spiritualism-1840-1930/Pulham-Ferguson-Arias-Kontou/p/book/9780415683067

Abstract
Volume I: Spiritualism: Health, Race, and Human Variation edited and introduced by Christine Ferguson The collection compiles and publishes-- in some cases, for the very first time-- key primary historical sources that document the transatlantic spiritualist movement's participation in discourses of human reproduction, race, health, and eugenics. Sources include seance records, works of spiritualist philosophy, afterlife writing, fiction, health manuals, and periodical articles. Include the editor's original translations of French spirit messages produced within the Henry Louis Rey circle. 1. Andrew Jackson, ‘What is Man Anatomically and Physiologically Considered’ and excerpt from ‘The Philosophy of Disease’, The Great Harmonia, Vol. 1 (Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey & Co., 1851), pp. 13–42, 128–41. 2. John Murray Spear and A. E. Newton, ‘Of Births’, ‘Practical Applications: "The Electric Motor"’, and ‘The Electrical Motor and its Uses’, The Educator: Being Suggestions, Theoretical and Practical, Designed to Promote Man-Culture and Integral Reform, With a View to the Ultimate Establishments of a Divine Social State on Earth (Boston: Office of Practical Spiritualists, 1857), pp. 236–57. 3. William H. Holcombe, ‘The Spiritual Philosophy of African Slavery’, Suggestions as to the Spiritual Philosophy of African Slavery (New York: Mason Brothers, 1861), pp. 3–11. 4. Andrew Jackson, ‘Amalgamation and Human Hybrids’, ‘Temperaments and Human Offspring’, ‘A Divine Law Against Polygamy’, and ‘Extinction of Red and Black Man’, Answers to the Ever-Recurring Questions from the People (New York: A. J. Davis & Co., 1862), pp. 277–9, 282–4, 289–97, 357–60. 5. ‘A Citizen of Ohio’, Interior Causes of the War: The Nation Demonized and the President a Spirit Rapper (New York: M. Doolady, 1863), pp. 1–9, 25–47. 6. Andrew Jackson, Lecture XIII: ‘Different Attractions of Different Temperaments; or, How to Avoid the Transient Union and Secure the Permanent Marriage’, The Great Harmonia, Vol. 4 (Boston: Bela Marsh, 1864). 7. Woodbury M. Fernald, ‘First Causes of Character’, ‘Intellectual and Moral Qualities Transmissable from Parents to Children’, ‘Connection of the Natural Birth with the Spiritual; Marriage, Etc.’, ‘Possibilities and Impossibilities of Human Perfection, As Based Upon the Law of Hereditary Descent’, and ‘Laws and Conditions of Sexual Intercourse, Parentage, Etc.’, A View at the Foundations: Or, First Causes of Character, As Operative Before Birth, from Hereditary and Spiritual Sources (Boston: William Spencer, 1865), pp. 9–18, 19–32, 47–64, 65–103, 117–45. 8. Paschal Beverly Randolph, excerpt from After Death; or, Disembodied Man [Being the Sequel to Dealings with the Dead], 2nd edn. (Boston: P. B. Randolph, 1868). 9. Viscount Adare, ‘Séance No. 14: Home Channels Eugenic Advice Under Control of Doctor Elliotson’, Experiences in Spiritualism (privately published, 1870). 10. Séance transcripts from the Henry Louis Rey Circle, New Orleans: i. Mars 25, 1869, ‘Esclavage Physique et Moral’ par Lamenais (followed by translation of transcript by Grandjean); ii. Du 5 Avril, 1869, ‘L’Esclavage Moral’ par Henri Rey (Signed Vincent De Paul) (translation of transcript by Grandjean); iii. Du 14 Juillet, 1870, par Henry Clay (translation of transcript by Granjean); iv. Le 28 Juillet, 1870, par De Brugs/De Burgs? (translation of transcript by C. Ferguson); v. Du 26 Octobre, 1870, poem ‘Black in the Land of America’, signed ‘A Black Man’; vi. Du 9 Novembre, 1870, message on racial integration of schools, signed ‘W. R. Meadows’; vii. 4 Juillet, 1871, message from Washington on ‘Black Emancipation’; viii. 8 February 1872, Grandjean translation of message from John Brown; ix. 17 December 1872, Grandjean translation of spirit message from Indian spirit Poho; x. 15 March 1873, message on the Spirit of Body, but Lamenais; xi. 6 December 1873, message on the meaning of Deformites and the Appearance of the Post-Life Body signed ‘A Brother’; xii. 4 September 1874, message from Abraham Lincoln. 11. Edward B. Tylor, ‘Survival in Culture’, Primitive Culture (London: John Murray, 1871), pp. 101–8, 120–44. 12. Gerald Massey, Man in Search of his Soul During Fifty Thousand Years, and How He Found It! (London: Villa Bordighiera, 1887). 13. Mrs J. H. Conant, ‘Appendix to Preface’ [Indian Spirit Poetry] and assorted messages on race and the spirit body, Flashes of Light from the Spirit Land (Boston: William White & Co, 1872), pp. 20–7, 68–72, 298–300, 321–3, 367. 14. P. B. Randolph, ‘Ravalette’, The Wonderful Story of Ravalette (Toledo, OH: Corson Randolph, 1876), pp. 126–43. 15. ‘On Indian Spirits’, excerpt from ‘On Spiritualism in the Slaveholding South’, and excerpt from ‘On Indian Spirits at St. Paul’s Cathedral’, Autobiography of Emma Hardinge Britten (Manchester: John Heywood, 1900), pp. 129–41, 142–50, 210–12. 16. Israel Zangwill, ‘The Choice of Parents’, Without Prejudice (London: 1902), pp. 194–207. 17. W. J. Colville, ‘The Ethics of Mental Healing’, Mental Healing and Bodily Welfare (London: The Power-Book Co., 1914), pp. 5–24.

Keywords
Spiritualism; Eugenics; Race; Human Reproduction;Henry Louis Rey Circle; Paschal Beverly Randolph

People

Professor Christine Ferguson

Professor in English, English Studies