Reconstruction’s Restless Spirits: New Orleans Séances, Afro-Creole Mediums, and the Battle for Equality

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Americans turned to the spirit world to make sense of staggering mortal losses and uncertain futures. In New Orleans, Afro-Creole mediums gathered around séance tables to commune with the dead. Voices of fallen soldiers, abolitionists, and Reconstruction martyrs spoke of liberty, equality, and justice—offering both comfort and a radical vision of a new society. Drawing on the séance registers of a group of Afro-Creole spiritualists, this talk uncovers the world of nineteenth-century spiritualism, where ghostly messages became tools in the struggle for racial justice and a reminder that the fight for freedom did not end with death.

Lecture by Dr. Ashley Towle, Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Southern Maine. Her research and teaching interests include nineteenth-century United States history, the history of enslavement and emancipation, and the history of gender and sexuality. She is the author of African Americans, Death, and the New Birth of Freedom: Dying Free during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and co-editor of Grave History: Death, Race, and Gender in Southern Cemeteries.

This event will be held at Wishcamper 133 on the USM Portland campus. Paid parking is available at the USM garage nearby. 

Tickets: $20 for members and $25 for general public