Back to the Classics #1

I read this book for the reading challenge Back to the Classics 2022.

19^th Century Classic. "When someone is honestly 55% right, that’s very good and there’s no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it’s wonderful, it’s great luck, and let him thank God. But what’s to be said about 75% right? Wise people say this is suspicious. Well, and what about 100% right? Whoever says he’s 100% right is a fanatic, a thug, and the worst kind of rascal." "An Old Jew of Galicia," quoted in The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz.

Fanaticism: Its Source and Influence, Illustrated by the Simple Narrative of Isabella, in the Case of Matthias, Mr. and Mrs. B. Folger, Mr. Pierson, Mr. Mills, Catherine, Isabella, &c. &c. A Reply to W. L. Stone, with the Descriptive Portraits of All the Parties, While at Sing-Sing and at Third Street.—Containing the Whole Truth--and Nothing but the Truth – Gilbert Vale (link here)

Fifteen years before her autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave (Boston, 1850), she worked with Vale, a British-born journalist, on this as-told-to story about her experience as a member of and domestic servant in a religious community in New York from 1832 to 1835. The Isabella referred to in the title was Isabella Van Wagenen, Truth’s original name before she changed it to the one familiar to us nowadays.

Born in London in 1788, Vale received a classical education and moved to the United States in 1829 due to political trouble (Vale was a follower of Thomas Paine and wrote a biography of this willfully forgotten founding father, one of the stones in the shoe of American history). Vale was editor of the gaudily named penny paper Citizen of the World for several years. Alert to opportunities to fight for the little guy and boost circulation, he took up his pen to clear the name of Isabella Van Wagenen. Vale was clearly an editor who knew a whale of story when he spotted one.

His fluent persuasive writing style shows that he was also obviously an educated man with the sense to know big claims need big proofs. So he interviewed the principles of the story, all the people mentioned in the long title above. They were members of one of the new religions that were starting up in the Northeast as part of the Second Great Awakening, the protestant religious revival that took place from about 1795 to 1835.

Vale asserts that the source of fanaticism was fairly simple. The members of the community mistook their thoughts and feelings for teachings of the Spirit.  Their interpretations of the Bible were peculiar and original. They regarded mere fancies, dreams and visions as divinely inspired. Seeing themselves as favorites of God and non-members as “devils,” this in-crowd formed what they supposed was a holy community. They also believed that good and bad spirits could occupy living bodies and transfer themselves from one body to another. These fervent beliefs were in place when Matthias appeared.

Robert Matthews, the self-styled Prophet Matthias, had a beard in an era when men went beardless so he looked like Jesus. This impressed, even awed, ingenuous people. Though a poor talker, he had winning ways and an air of authority. Not educated, he expressed a theology that was along the lines of what the community already believed. His kingdom was organized along authoritarian lines, with Matthias making all decisions weighty and trivial. Matthias and the followers had no truck with doctors, assuming that evil spirits caused illness. Members of the kingdom fasted often and ate healthy with fresh fruit and vegetables, which must not have been easy in winter in New York.

By virtue of his authority as a prophet of God, Matthias procured the possession of large properties of a Mr. Pierson (an unstable and too enthusiastic shopper of religious beliefs) and Mr. Folger (a non-zealous fellow, charming to all, especially females). Matthias also excited and enchanted Mrs. Folger enough for her to break up her marriage. She had visions and instruction from God to seek union with Matthias. In recompense Matthias provided Mr. Folger with his already married daughter, “young, plump, fresh coloured, and pretty, though certainly not possessed of those highly feminine qualities which rendered Mrs. B. Folger so attractive.”

Even though members were enjoined to keep these goings-on secret, word of these irregularities of course leaked out to the villagers of Sing-Sing when the daughter’s husband was discovered skulking around the village in order to find out what was going on with his wife. Of course, his problem, which he freely talked about, caused talk that Matthias was an impostor, or insane. Vale reports:

As these things became known in the village, the excitement of course increased; crowds assembled about the premises; the hill which overhung or overlooked the house, was peopled; the enclosures were violated by some, and great numbers thronged the road and lane leading to the house: while Laisdell, now assisted by the civil power, had the means of compelling the parties to appear before a magistrate. The carriage was now got ready, and the family, with great reluctance, got in and drove off to Mr. Crosby's tavern, at the top of the hill, where the magistrates them sat. On the road, the carriage was of course followed by the mob, previously assembled, hooting, hallooing, and implicating Matthias, on whom the whole weight of the displeasure of the people fell, while Mr. B. Folger, the most culpable in this case, not only escaped their violence, but was enabled to protect Matthias.

With this religiously rationalized sexual irregularity – like I said, Vale knew a hot story when he saw one – Vale, like-minded to freethinking Thomas Paine, observes “[T]hen we must come to the conclusion, that conversion is no protection against crimes, and that any degree of grossness is compatible with sincere religious profession, and the most pious practices and appearances; or that fanaticism is compatible with any degree of laxity of established morals.”

Vale provides astonishing glimpses into the entangled sexual, economic, and religious lives of Isabella / Truth's white associates and her relationship to them. Vale observes

[I]f she has escaped the peculiar pollution which threatened to affect the whole community at Sing Sing, that she believes she owes it to circumstances, as much as any thing--(she is near forty, not handsome, and coloured)--for at one time the spirit which affected the head, was infectious, and threatened the whole body. She says it pleased God to preserve her, as no match spirit was found in the establishment for her.

“Match spirit” was the community’s word for the soul mate Matthias picked out for members – everything in common was their way.

Pierson took sick after eating a dessert dish of berries, though he had a pre-existing condition - i.e., strange fits - that may have contributed to his health breaking up. Believing that illness could be cured by supernatural means, Mr. Pierson himself had negative opinions about medicine and doctors so no expert treatment was called in. On Pierson’s last night alive, Isabell­­­­a wanted to tend to him, but both the Prophet and Mrs. Folger scolded her, saying taking care of a patient was incompatible with her duties as a cook. Pierson died a lonely and gruesome death.

Prophet Mattias was arrested and charged but at the trial the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. Vale averts that this was probably the most just outcome.  However, later Isabella was accused in a book by a Mr. Stone of complicity in the presumed poisoning. Isabella successfully sued her accusers for slander, winning $125 (about $4,000 in today’s money) and costs after her case was supported by this book.

It’s no wonder that after the scandal Isabella / Truth concluded that The Big Apple was a sink of sin but she was not able to move out of the city for about 10 years.  After the trial was dismissed, the kingdom broke up. Chased out of the Big Apple by the scandal, Matthias moved west where he died in 1842.

I would recommend this book to anybody interested in the psychology of the cult experience or examples of the shenanigans that bring self-styled religious leaders down. It would also be of interest to those buffs of stories of the frowning prejudice of public opinion against people whose actions the folks just don’t like.