Final Thoughts:

The spiritualist movement allowed for the publicity and upward mobility of a remarkable group of women from disparate walks of life and experience. These women would go on to challenge the patriarchal attitudes and mores of the 19th century world, all the while leading a spiritual movement of millions and giving comfort to those in grief (particularly after the bloody American Civil War). For the first time women were being listened to by audiences of all kinds of people, women and men. These women used this platform to fight for their rights and prove that women were more than capable of succeeding where, previously, only men had been allowed. Many of these females were the first of their gender to make these accomplishments, and many had a direct effect on public opinion and even legislation. It is interesting to see this 19th century progressively liberal spiritual movement, championed by ex-quakers and connecting many of the great figures of social reform of their day.

The sources used for research have been included in their entirety below. The Spiritualism movement changed the world and gave birth to a new way of looking at the world that inspiried and was connected to other similar movements such as Theosophy and Britain's Order of the Golden Dawn. In historical parallel, the 20th century reformists movements began to develop their own sense of spiritualism through the "New Age" movement. Spiritualism, however, stands alone in its powerful effect, its duration and the way it allowed women to give voice to their concerns to the public for the first time.

The women of the spiritualism movement claimed to have been given special knowledge and insight into the world to come, the afterlife (Davis's "Summerland"). These reformers did not rest their laurels on public adoration and the wealth they accumulated through bringing comfort to others, but worked tirelessly and against threats and scorn of many to bring that vision of a perfect and heavenly society to fruition in this world. In so doing they used their voice to champion the poor, the enslaved, the hated and the suppressed: the voiceless.

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