Born in London, Britain in 1823, Emma Hardinge Britten is best known for her work in Spiritualism with over a dozen books on the subject. She is credited with establishing the seven principles of Spiritualism still in use today. However, starting at age twelve, she also had a varied career as a professional singer, pianist, and actress.
In 1859, she came to the United States and was a prime mover in the growth of Spiritualism at the time. In the 1860s, like Anna Dickinson, she became a popular orator during the American Civil War. Despite being British, in 1864, she was paid by the Republican party to campaign for Lincoln’s 1864 second term. Hardinge’s most acclaimed speech was given upon the assassination of President Lincoln.
She was also a fighter for social justice taking up the cause of maltreatment of the Chinese immigrants, the welfare of prostitutes (which grew out of her own negative experiences in the theater) and for women’s rights.
The following excerpt is taken from The Place and Mission of Women, a speech given in 1859 in Boston.
We can see no limit to the power of women to enter into the chambers of knowledge; we can see no bound which should hedge in the genius of women; but we can see, in the fine and ever-revolving wheels of her womanly nature, so many levers, so many propelling powers, that we ask thee, O man, for thy own best interests, to open the door of thy colleges, and schools, and permit thy helpmeet to walk in, and do thee a better service than thou canst render for thyself. O think of what thou wilt do for that army, which at best at present is an army of martyrs, the dolls of the drawing room, the mere glittering children of fashion, who troll their silks and satins along the highway, desolate for want of an occupation with all the yearning aspirations of their souls going forth in the wrong direction! You can not crush them out of life; there they are, and there they will find an outlet. And how do they find it? They fall upon what you leave for them—the shop windows, the toys and frivolities of life…Let it be disgraceful for the women, for the daughters, and for the sisters of life to have no occupations, as it would be disgraceful for men to fritter away the noble energies of manhood and spend their days in idleness and uselessness, the drones of life. pp. 8-10
Emma Hardinge Britten’s Writings
- Modern American Spiritualism (1870)
- Nineteenth Century Miracles (1884)
- The Place and Mission of Women: An Inspirational Discourse (1859)
- Outline Of A Plan For A Self-Sustaining Institution For Homeless And Outcast Females (1858)
- American and Her Destiny (1861)
- The Wildfire Club (1861)
- A Funeral Oration on Rev. Thos. Starr King (1864)
- The Great Funeral Oration on Abraham Lincoln”(1865)
- Address Delivered at the Winter Soirees (1865)
- Miss Emma Hardinge’s Political Campaign, in Favour of the Union Party of America (1865)
- What is Spiritualism? (1868)
- Mrs. Emma Hardinge on Spirit Mediums (1868)
- Rules to be Observed When Forming Spiritual Circles (1868)
- Modern American Spiritualism (1870)
- On The Spirit Circle and the Laws of Mediumship (1871)
- The Electric Physician (1875)
- Ghost Land (1876)
- On the Road (1878)
- Spiritualism: Is It A Savage Superstition? (1878)
- The Chinese Labour Question; or the Problem of Capital versus Labor (1878)
- The Faith Facts and Frauds or Religious History (1879)
- Spiritualism Vindicated and Clerical Slanders Refuted (1879)
- Nineteenth Century Miracles or Spirits and Their Work in Every Country on Earth (1883)
See also
The Emma Harding Britten Archive
The Autobiography of Emma Hardinge Britten 1900 (published posthumously)
More about Emma Hardinge Britten
The Spirited Pioneer: The Life of Emma Hardinge Britten by Lisa A. Howe
Emma Hardinge Britten and the Seven Principles
It should be shameful for any woman to be unemployed.
Emma Hardinge Britten