The Fox Sisters' Rappings
Two young sisters said they could talk with a spirit through knocks, and started a movement that swept the world.
What was reported
In March 1848, Kate and Margaret Fox, aged about 11 and 14, said that rapping noises in their family's house in Hydesville, in upstate New York, came from a spirit that answered their questions with knocks. On 31 March they showed neighbours, who were convinced.
The sisters went on to hold public séances, and their fame launched Spiritualism, a movement that by the late 1800s had millions of followers in the US and Britain.
Explanations offered
In 1888 Margaret publicly confessed that the raps had been made by cracking the joints of their toes, and demonstrated it on stage, though she later took the confession back. Most historians accept the knocks were a children's trick that grew far beyond their control.
- When
- 31 March 1848
- Where
- Hydesville, Arcadia, New York, USA
- Witnesses
- The Fox family and their neighbours
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.