The Fox Sisters: From Tiny Knocks To A Global Movement

The Fox Sisters: From Tiny Knocks To A Global Movement

Two sisters who turned raps in the dark into a movement that rewrote how we grieve. We follow Maggie and Kate Fox from Hydesville’s tiny room to roaring theaters, where audiences asked questions and the walls answered back. As their older sister Leah took the reins, seances spread across America and Europe, offering something people craved: a way to keep love alive with tangible signs, moving tables, and messages you could feel and hear. Spiritualism.

Then came the bombshell: Maggie’s 1888 confession that the raps were toe and joint snaps, performed on cue before a stunned crowd. We walk through the contradictions with care: comfort versus deceit, belief versus proof, and what it costs to be the face of a phenomenon. 

You’ll hear why spiritualism exploded when it did, how it gave people hope, and why the Fox sisters’ complicated legacy still shapes ghost hunting, mediumship, and the way we talk about death.