Whether you believe the Fox sisters possessed supernatural powers or were masters of deception, one thing is for sure. What began as a rapping on the wall quickly became fame & fortune. Spiritualism was at its height & provided a platform for women to speak out. Death & the Maiden’s Sarah Chavez explains that women became influential, powerful and financially independent for the first time in America, all because they could supposedly speak to the dead.

At first, the rappings and strange noises were mysterious in nature. They were especially unnerving to Mrs. Fox, who had moved into the little house in Hydesville, New York with her previously estranged husband and three children only weeks prior, during the winter of 1848.

As time went on the rappings continued with more frequency. First at night, then spilling over into the waking hours — from the floor, the walls, the furniture — or anywhere the Fox girls happened to be.

Read More – Death and the Birth of Feminism – Dead Maidens