A Luminous Brotherhood

View Inside

280 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 6 halftones, notes, bibl., index

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-2878-3
Published: September 2016
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-4565-0
Published: August 2018
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-2879-0
Published: August 2016
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-5219-9
Published: August 2016

Buy this Book

Hardcover $34.95
Paperback $29.95
E-Book $19.99

Amazon Kindle Apple iBookstore Barnes and Noble Ebooks

For Professors:
Free E-Exam Copies

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

Author Website

Follow the Author on Twitter

Awards & distinctions

2017 Francis B. Simkins Award, Southern Historical Association

Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award, Gulf South Historical Association

A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2017

In the midst of a nineteenth-century boom in spiritual experimentation, the Cercle Harmonique, a remarkable group of African-descended men, practiced 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 citywide 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.

About the Author

Emily Suzanne Clark is associate professor of religious studies at Gonzaga University.
For more information about Emily Suzanne Clark, visit the Author Page.