The Spiritualist Reverend

Reform movements took root as the Second Great Awakening swept across the United States. From abolition and temperance to labor and women’s rights, there was a call for the nation to be remade. By the 1840s, the political landscape was shifting and innovations in science were reinvigorating American culture. Religion was not immune to the changing tide. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The stern old faiths have all pulverized. America was a whole population of gentlemen and ladies out in search of religions, tis a flat anarchy in our ecclesiastical realms.”¹ Religious revivals took hold and new emphases on individual connections to faith emerged. During this time, Spiritualism became the religious choice for many reformers, including Rev. John Pierpont.

While looking into Rev. Pierpont’s papers, a few small folders stood out from the rest, touching on a subject many may feel is contradictory to a reverend's work. Tucked away in his archive are letters, lists, and notes on his belief in Spiritualism. This movement, which experienced its heyday during the mid-to-late 1800s, espoused the belief that it was possible to communicate with the dead, and that the spirit world could send us messages about finding utopia. Spiritualism's “values were echoed by social causes like abolition, women’s suffrage, and labor rights.”² Rev. Pierpont spent years investigating, supporting, and participating in the movement. In a letter held at the University of Michigan, he wrote, "There is not a fact in sacred history, or, in truth, in any other history, of which the evidence presented to my mind is so strong -- or a tithe as strong, as that those whom I have loved, and have 'gone before' are often, if not always around me, and that I am still an object of their interest and of their care"³

Pierpont’s papers document his time on the lecture circuit and include requests for him to speak about his investigations into spiritualism. His detailed handwritten notes highlight what happened at seances, particularly the communication with spirits.

One note begins, “Frances, you know that when you were a girl, with long, dark tresses, and with teeth of pearl.” The message was to be sent through a medium, Mrs. Perkins, who could connect to the other side. Pierpont asks Frances to inspire his poetic voice and signs the letter “To Mrs. Frances Osgood, in the spirit world.”⁴ While one might take these supernatural letters with a grain of salt, it was Pierpont’s responses from the spirit world that demand closer examination. In one seance, the spirit responded by saying, “I am one of the group who encircle you dear Uncle, I am in heaven performing my mission of love and duty which God has assigned to me.”⁵

There is no indication if the “dear uncle” referenced is Pierpont or someone else who may have been attending the seance. For Rev. Pierpont, a belief in Spiritualism did not take away from his faith in God or Christianity. He never acknowledged any conflict between the two and moved from being simply an observer to a true believer over time.

In one of the most poignant writings held in his papers, there is an undated note that appears to be a conversation between Rev. Pierpont and the spirit of a former enslaver. Many abolitionists saw Spiritualism as a way to speak out against slavery. Famously, Harriet Jacobs and Sojourner Truth (both women who were born into slavery and gained freedom in the North) became spiritualists and used the movement to support their abolition work. In this handwritten communication, Pierpont asks the spirit if he has spoken with any of those he had enslaved in life. Pressing further, he asks,

“Qu - Do not the colored and the white races associate in the spirit world? Ans - They are all there and can associate if they wish. Qu - Are you in anywise disquieted in consideration of your having held slaves in life? Ans - I do not believe as I used to, but I always treated them kindly, and that is a happy thought. Good night Reverend Pierpoint.”⁶

Pierpont was known for preaching his political convictions, and his liberal-mindedness led to dismissals from his congregations more than once. As many conservative-leaning churches sought to uphold the institution of slavery, reformers such as Pierpont saw the importance of holding them accountable. It is not surprising to learn that when leaving to serve as a chaplain for the Union troops, he equated the fight against slavery to a fight against the devil himself.⁷

It is this fiery conviction that comes through in his conversation with the former enslaver. Voices from the beyond became a tool for abolitionists to show the pain and suffering enslaved people had gone through, as well as, in this case, the possibility of reform for those who had been enslavers. It was believed by many within the movement that spirits sought out individuals and reformers who would be willing to promote change. Frederick Douglass even published reports of spirit communications in his paper The North Star. This communication between Pierpont and the spirit world would have been used to show that the racial barriers on earth were not carried into the afterlife, and that even those who bore that sin in life could be redeemed.

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Erica Ciallela
Exhibition Project Curator
The Morgan Library & Museum

Endnotes

1. Mahnke, Aaron. "Seer". Unobscured. Grim & Mild, October 2, 2019. Unobscured — Grim & Mild (grimandmild.com)
2. Ibid
3. Letter dated September 19, 1861. John Pierpont Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan
4. Note to Frances Osgood, June 1859. John Pierpont Papers, Morgan Library & Museum; Arc 726, box 13 folder 4
5. Undated Spiritual Communication. John Pierpont Papers; Arc 726 box 26, folder 5
6. Undated Spiritual Communication. John Pierpont Papers, Morgan Library & Museum; Arc 726, box 26 folder 6
7. John Pierpont Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan