A luminous brotherhood
Subtitle: Afro-Creole spiritualism in nineteenth-century New Orleans
By: Emily Suzanne Clark
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
ISBN-13: 9781469628783
Subjects: Religious life and customs; Religion; Race; Church history; Religious aspects; African Americans
Description: "In the midst of a nineteenth-century boom in spiritual experimentation, the Cercle Harmonique, a remarkable group of African-descended men, practices Spiritualism in heavily Catholic New Orleans from just before the Civil War to the end of Reconstruction. In this first comprehensive history of the Cercle, Emily Suzanne Clark illuminates how highly diverse religious practices wind in significant ways through American life, culture, and history. Clark shows that the beliefs and practices of Spiritualism helped Afro-Creoles mediate the political and social changes in New Orleans, as free blacks suffered increasingly restrictive laws and then met with violent resistance to suffrage and racial equality. Drawing on fascinating records of actual séance practices, the lives of the mediums, and larger city-wide and national contexts, Clark reveals how the messages that the Cercle received from the spirit world offered its members rich religious experiences as well as a forum for political activism inspired by republican ideals. Messages from departed souls including François Rabelais, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Robert E. Lee, Emanuel Swedenborg, and even Confucius discussed government structures, the moral progress of humanity, and equality. The Afro-Creole Spiritualists were encouraged to continue struggling for justice in a new world where "bright" spirits would replace raced bodies." From jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-258) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Afro-Creole Spiritualism in New Orleans; title: The creation of the Cercle Harmonique; title: The disharmony of New Orleans city life; title: Spiritualism and Catholicism; title: The spiritual republic and America's destiny; title: The spiritual republic in the Atlantic Age of revolutions.