John Brown's Soul Goes Marching On: The Spiritualist Press and the Representation of John Brown

Abstract

During the nineteenth century, America was entranced by the new religious movement known as spiritualism—the practice of communicating with spirits of the dead through mediums. This article examines how spiritualist newspapers that advocated for the abolition of slavery and other reforms managed to voice support for John Brown and his legendary 1859 raid at Harper's Ferry while also maintaining their commitment to non-violence. The spiritualist movement necessarily had a divided view of Brown (most of the press admired him for his cause even if they disliked his methods), but they were not unwilling to pass on the words of his spirit. I show that the spiritualist press represented his spirit (post-mortem) in ways politically useful but antithetical to how he lived his life.