The Fox Sisters

Te’a Olivas

The Fox Sisters were known to be famous for being the creators of spiritualism. The spirits communicate with people known as psychics and mediums. That is what you can call the Fox sisters. The names of the three sisters were Margaret, Kate and Leah Fox. In 1848, the sisters lived in Hydesville, New York. The Fox sisters started to believe in spirits because they heard unusual noises throughout the house they lived in. They were convinced the house was haunted. The noises they would hear included furniture being move and knocking. The fox sisters decided to come up with a prank to scare the mother into believing in the bad spirits and ghost in the house. After all, the mother didn’t need a prank to be convinced that there was a ghost in house. She started to ask questions to the ghost by asking it to knock and answers the questions getting ask by moments in the house. Soon after, The Fox family found out there was a murder in their house two years earlier. The spirit was known as an older man in his early thirties who was married with five children of his own. That is when the sisters started to communicate with spirits. The Fox sisters claimed that they could receive messages for people from different spirits amongst the dead. The sisters started to perform rapping’s that were similar to the noises happening in the house. For example, the fox sisters used their toes for the crackling noises. The noises in the house triggered the Fox sisters to produce creative ideas about spiritual rapping’s. The sisters perform their very first rapping at Corinthian Hall in Rochester. The sisters wanted people to believe in spirits after the rapping’s to prove they could communicate with spirits, and can deliver messages from the spirits. Many people in the 1800's questioned the Fox sisters on if the rapping’s were real. Did the Fox sisters communicate with spirits? It was even more difficult to believe because one of the sisters claimed that communicating with the spirits were fake as well as the rapping’s that were performed in the 1800's. Until this day the world has no evidence that the rapping’s were real or fake. We will never know if the Fox sisters really communicated with spirits. The fox sisters will always be famous for their mysterious and suspenseful performances.

Work Cited:
Bann, Jennifer. "Ghostly Hands and Ghostly Agency: The Changing Figure of the Nineteenth-Century Specter." Victorian Studies 51.4 (2009): 663-85. 
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/stable/pdf/10.2979/vic.2009.51.4.663.pdf

"Speaking With Spirits." Skeptic 19.2 (2014): 65. Academic Search Premier. 8 Oct. 2016. http://ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96430250&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Stuart, Nancy Rubin. "The Raps Heard Around The World." American History 40.3 (2005): 42-80. Academic Search Premier. 8 Oct. 2016, http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid=657367c5-b699-4264-bdde-ec45603b2b42%40sessionmgr102&hid=113

Walliss, John. "Continuing Bonds: Relationships Between The Living And The Dead Within Contemporary Spiritualism." Mortality 6.2 (2001): 127-145. Academic Search Premier. 15 Oct. 2016. http://ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6006954&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Williams, Kathy. Western Folklore 69.1 (2010): 131-32. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/stable/pdf/25735293.pdf.


Links for Further Research:

Valente, K. G. ""Who Will Explain the Explanation?": The Ambivalent Reception of Higher Dimensional Space in the British Spiritualist Press, 1875-1900." Victorian Periodicals Review 41.2 (2008): 124-49. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/stable/40587440. 
This source from the web, the John Hopkins University, gives information on how spiritualism begun. Also, it provides who was involve in creating spiritualism.

Monroe, John. "Making the Séance "Serious": "Tables Tournantes" and Second Empire Bourgeois Culture, 1853-1861." History of Religions 38.3 (1999): 219-46. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/stable/40587440. This web source, from University of Chicago, provides information about the Fox sisters experiences in the house that influence them to communicate with spirits. It gives information about the spiritual rapping performed by the Fox sisters.


Kattelman, Beth A. "Magic, Monsters, and Movies: America's Midnight Ghost Shows." Theatre Journal 62.1 (2010): 23-39. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/stable/40587440. This web source, from the John Hopkins University, provides information about how spiritualism grew after the world heard about the Fox sister’s experiences. People started to be involved in the sisters spiritual rapping performances.

The Brown Mountain Lights

Author: Christina Levy

Brown Mountain is located in the northern area of Burke County in North Carolina.  There are not any geological features on this mountain making it significant to North Carolina history.  Instead, there are mysterious orb like lights randomly hovering over the mountain at night.  These lights are known as The Brown Mountain Lights and explanations vary from warring Indian tribes to a murder story from 1850.  These lights are described in the book Ghosts of the Carolinas as “seen and investigated for more than a century, a tantalizing mystery remains unsolved in the mountains of North Carolina”.  These ghost light sightings say a lot about the dead communicating with the living, a belief of spiritualism.

The Brown Mountain Marker

   One explanation for The Brown Mountain Lights is the Cherokee Indian legend of a bloody battle between the Cherokee and the Catawba Indians.  In the 12^th century, the two warring tribes fought a bloody battle on Brown Mountain in North Carolina.  After the battle, the young Native American maidens went back to the mountain to see if anyone was left alive.  The sight was so awful that the young women still haunt the mountain with their torches held high.  Another explanation for these lights regarding the bloody Native American battle in the 12^th century is, these lights are the spirits of the Native American warriors who were slain in the battle.  These stories are two explanations of the lights dancing on top of Brown Mountain.

            Another explanation for The Brown Mountain Lights is the legend dating back to 1850.  This legend is about a woman named Belinda and her husband, who was a suspect for her murder.  Belinda disappeared in the area of the Brown Mountain, North Carolina Museum of History. One night, while people were searching for her, the strange Brown Mountain Lights were seen dancing over the mountain.  Many people believe that it is the spirit of Belinda coming back to haunt the person who murdered her.  Soon after this, her husband left the country and was never heard of again.  Years later, her skeleton was found under a large pile of rocks.  It is believed that her spirit light still haunt Brown Mountain reminding criminals that eventually their crimes will be revealed.

The dancing Brown Mountain Lights are located in the northern area of Burke County in North Carolina.  These mysterious luminescent orbs randomly hover over the mountain at night.  One explanation for these lights is the spirits of the Cherokee and Catawba Indians after a bloody battle in the 12^th century.  Another explanation for these lights is the story about a woman named Belinda who was supposedly murdered by her husband in 1850.  Her spirit haunts the mountains to this day reminding criminals that they will be caught for their crimes. These stories explain the history behind the dancing lights on top of Brown Mountain in North Carolina.

Works Cited:

Braswell, Charles.  “Brown Mountain Lights.” Photograph. The Brown Mountain Lights.  2009.  Web.  15 Oct. 2012. (Photo removed at Mr. Braswell's request.)

Roberts, Nancy. Ghosts of the Carolinas.  McNally and Loftin, Publishers. 1962.  Book.  10 Oct. 2012.

“The Brown Mountain Lights”.  North Carolina Museum of History Office of Archives and History, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.  2005.  Web. 10 Oct. 2012.

Links for Further Research: 

You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSJb3QuBlTg

Includes a news segment specifically focused on everything regarding The Brown Mountain Lights such as the history and different sightings.

The Brown Mountain Lights
http://jayssouth.com/nc/brown/brownmountain2.jpgIncludes historical sightings, pictures, videos, as well as the history behind The Brown Mountain Lights.

Space Time Forum
http://spacetime.forumotion.com/t278-north-carolina-s-brown-mountain-ufo-ghost-lights
Includes a map of Brown Mountain in North Carolina, several videos of the phenomena, and other hyperlinks, which focus on The Brown Mountain Lights.