{"id":9540,"date":"2024-06-22T17:33:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T21:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/?p=9540"},"modified":"2024-06-22T17:33:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T21:33:25","slug":"the-dharma-of-dixie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/06\/the-dharma-of-dixie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dharma Of “Dixie.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
I had wanted to write about the Theosophical Society in the American South, and when thinking about what title I might choose, I remembered how strange the word \u201cDixie\u201d was. For many years I had assumed the word was a reference to the Mason-Dixon Line, and those States below it. I was wrong. We find the real origin of the word in antebellum Louisiana, the Francophone colony which the United States purchased from the French in 1803. For a number of years preceding the Civil War, the $10-note of the Citizens\u2019 Bank in Louisiana, the \u201cdix\u201d (French for \u201cten,\u201d) was widely circulated in the South via<\/em> the steamboatmen on the Mississippi River. An almost universal expression used by these steamboatmen, when leaving from the \u201cup-river\u201d country for New Orleans, in answer to questions about their destination, was: \u201cWe\u2019re going South after dixes,\u201d or going to \u201cDixie-land.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n
I then thought of a clip I recently watched titled \u201cThe Unexpected Origins Of The Word \u2018Monster<\/a>,\u2019\u201d in a segment called \u201cOtherwords\u201d in the PBS program \u201cStoried.\u201d In the segment, socio-linguist, Dr. Erica Brozovsky, gave a breakdown of the etymology of the word \u201cmonster.\u201d Here is my less elegant summary Brovovsky\u2019s history of that word. \u201cMonster\u201d entered the English language from the French \u201cmonstre,\u201d after William the Conqueror invaded England and installed French nobility to rule the land. French, therefore, came to be seen as the language of the aristocracy. France, having been conquered centuries before by Julius Caesar, had developed her language from its own native Gallic and the imported vernacular (vulgar) Latin. That was how English, a Germanic language, became infused with Latin words. As for the word \u201cmonster,\u201d it came from the Latin word \u201cmonstrum\u201d meaning \u201cbad omen.\u201d This appellation was given to those parts of the natural world that showed signs of abnormality. \u201cMonstrum\u201d itself stemmed from the word \u201cmonere\u201d meaning \u201cto warn.\u201d Some believed that the goddess Juno Moneta was a cognate with \u201cmonere,\u201d for, as the deity of Roman funds, she warned against economic instability. It was from Juno Moneta that we got the word \u201cmoney,\u201d itself a cognate with \u201cmonster.\u201d<\/p>\n
When different languages come into contact with one another, they sometimes simplify and merge into a new form called a \u201cpidgin\u201d language. Here is where we find axioms like \u201cChop-Chop,\u201d and \u201cNo can do.\u201d[2]<\/a> As far as I can tell, both those expressions arose about the same time and place as the word \u201cpidgin\u201d itself, that is to say, they developed in California in the 1890s when the Chinese immigrant community engaged with English-speakers. One California newspaper tried to explain the phenomenon: \u201cTo strangers the \u2018p\u2019dgin\u2019 English is very confusing [\u2026] If the [Chinese] are busy, they will tell you they \u2018hap pidgin,\u2019\u2014pidgin being the nearest they can come to pronouncing the word \u2018business.\u2019\u201d[3]<\/a> A \u201cpidgin\u201d language will then sometimes expand into stabilized natural languages called \u201ccreole\u201d languages. \u201cCreole\u201d being the French\u00a0word for the Portuguese\u00a0\u201ccrioulo,\u201d\u00a0meaning \u201cBlack person born in Brazil,\u201d stemming from\u00a0\u201ccriar\u201d\u00a0(from Latin\u00a0\u201ccreare\u201d meaning \u201cto breed\/produce\/create.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Another word that is useful term in the discussion of Theosophy in \u201cDixie\u201d is the word \u201cfetish.\u201d As historian William Pietz notes, the word began its life as the Latin adjective \u201cfacticius<\/em>,\u201d meaning \u201cmanufactured.\u201d This became the Portuguese word \u201cfeiti\u00e7o,\u201d which, in the late Middle Ages, meant \u201cwitchcraft.\u201d During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the word became the pidgin \u201cfetisso\u201d in the cross-cultural spaces of West Africa. In Pietz\u2019s essay, \u201cThe Problem Of The Fetish,\u201d he addresses the concerns of ethnographers who championed the Akan-speaking African word suman<\/em> over the term \u201cfetish,\u201d as the latter was seen as a \u201ccorrupt genus that obscures the true meaning of the socioreligious practices and artifacts of various non-Western societies.\u201d For Pietz, such attempts at translating terms like \u201cfetish\u201d back into native terminology ignores the historical cross-cultural story. Whatever ingredients that went into the \u201cgumbo\u201d of the term, it was now a \u201cnovel word responsive to an unprecedented type of situation.\u201d[4]<\/a> If the early Theosophists were participating in a project of \u201cpidgin\u201d religion, then the constellation of praxes in subsequent generations of Theosophists, like yoga or meditation, might well be considered \u201ccreole.\u201d Like \u201cthe problem of the fetish,\u201d translating such spiritual practices back into their \u201cnative languages\u201d ignores the historical space in which they developed in the first place.<\/p>\n
Perhaps here is the most suitable place to mention the short-lived Haitian Theosophical Society, which, thematically and chronologically, weaves into our topic. There was a connection between the Theosophical Society and Haiti which went back to the early years in New York. Alfred Harrisse, a member of the Haitian diplomatic service, who, being an amateur artist, traveled in the circles of bohemian artists who frequented Blavatsky\u2019s parlors.[5]<\/a> Strictly speaking, however, a charter for the Haitian Branch of the Theosophical Society was not issued until to 1886, when James Theodore Holly (1829-1911) wanted to start a Branch in Port-au-Prince.[6]<\/a> It is unclear when Holly joined, but it may have been in 1881, around the time that Dr. Charles E. Taylor became the Society\u2019s representative of the Danish West Indies Branch.[7]<\/a> Holly, the first African-American Episcopalian bishop, was certainly no stranger to avant-garde dispensationalism. In \u00a01884 he published a paper in which he divided history into three dispensations. The first was the Mosaic dispensation, when the \u201cSemitic race\u201d (Jews) first received God\u2019s revelation. The second was Gospel dispensation, when the \u201cJaphetic race\u201d (Whites) spread the word of God. The third dispensation was the Millennial, when during which the \u201cHamitic race,\u201d (Blacks,) would realize the Gospel\u2019s promise by virtue of their suffering.[8]<\/a> A revolution broke out in Haiti a year after the charter was issued, and a power struggle between General Legitime and Louis Hippolyte commenced.[9]<\/a> In 1888, Holly wrote to encouragingly to Col. Henry S. Olcott (President of the Theosophical Society) about the speedy formation of a Branch in Haiti that was to be \u201ccomposed entirely of educated negro gentlemen.\u201d[10]<\/a> It did not last long. The revolution finished off the group in 1890.[11]<\/a> The \u201cresidue\u201d of Theosophical thought, however, remained. Holly\u2019s own son, Arthur Holly, would, years later, write a book about Haitian religion in which he stated that Haitian mediums did not channel the souls of the dead, but rather \u201castral bodies.\u201d[12]<\/a><\/p>\n
The first Branch of the Theosophical Society in the South began when Carl F. Redwitz, the former President of the Krishna T.S. (Philadelphia) moved to New Orleans.[13]<\/sup><\/a> In the summer of 1890, Redwitz sent an application to Charter a new Branch to be known as the Vyasa T.S. Redwitz was joined by five men, all physicians, and opened its career with two commendable and auspicious acts. The first was a gift to William Quan Judge\u2019s (General Secretary of the American Section of Theosophical Society) office expenses, and the second was the immediate establishment of a Branch Library.[14]<\/a> At the time it only admitted male members, and its proceedings were conducted entirely in French.[15]<\/a><\/p>\n
On November 15, 1890, Judge issued a Charter for the second Branch of the South, the Siddhartha T.S. of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The President was James Gibson, and the Secretary James B.\u00a0 Thompson.[16]<\/a> A month later, on December 10, 1890, a Branch charter was issued for Memphis T.S. (Memphis, Tennessee.)[17]<\/a> Dr. Max Samfield was the President, and William H. Hotchkiss was the Secretary.[18]<\/a> Samfield was a forty-six year old German Rabbi who came to America in 1867 at the invitation of Congregation Bnai Zion in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was instrumental in erecting a new synagogue for the community. In 1871 he was elected Rabbi of Congregation Bnai Israel of Memphis. Here, in 1884, he was also privileged to dedicate a new house of worship. In 1885 he established The Jewish Spectator<\/em>, only one of two Jewish publications in the South.[19]<\/a> Although small in numbers, the Jews of Memphis were highly visible, and played an important role in the history of the city. Samfield and his congregation were community activists who were honored by fellow Memphians for their \u201celeemosynary, cultural, and literary contributions.\u201d[20]<\/a> (Only two more Branches would be established in the South in the coming years, Macon, Georgia in 1893, and Nashville, Tennessee in 1895.)[21]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
One notable member of the Vyasa T.S. was Dr. Charles Lopez, a third generation homeopathic physician, known for treating cholera patients among the immigrant populations.[22]<\/a> Born in Cuba, Lopez had immigrated to America with his family in 1869, and settled in New Orleans.[23]<\/a> He received the degree of A.M and B.M from the University of Havana, but upon coming to New Orleans he entered the medical college and received the degree of M.D.[24]<\/a> Regarding the \u201cMaster,\u201d Lopez would state:<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
\n
If the men of our race and age are ever going to make of Theosophy a practical guide in their daily life and not a mere speculation, an intellectual fad, or a sort of system of mental gymnastics, they must first conceive the Masters as ideals to imitate, as men more advanced on the path of evolution than the best of us, nearer to perfection and freer from the many obstacles that our ignorance of the ultimate forces of nature opposes to the exercise of our will. This conception of what a Master must be devoid of superstition and mysticism.[25]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/p>
The notion of an American \u201cmelting-pot\u201d was salvific for Lopez. \u201cHere, on [the American] continent, is forming a new race, composed elements from all the nations of earth,\u201d Lopez would state. \u201cThis new race is through long ages of development and progress, to carry the civilization of the world to a higher plane than that reached by any of nations of the world hitherto.\u201d[26]<\/a> This, unfortunately, was not a view shared by all. In fact, the notion of different races coming together sparked a genuine anxiety in some segments of power. Race-mixing was seen as unnatural, as Louisiana Governor Samuel McEnery declared in 1887 when the State Militia suppressed a cooperative strike of sugar workers that crossed the color lines. \u201cGod Almighty has drawn the color line.\u201d[27]<\/a> But this was not always the sentiment.<\/p>\n
New Orleans, a culturally heterogeneous, polyglot, frontier town, was an outlier from the beginning. The first settlers claimed from swamp and river the site for their crescent-shaped city in comparatively few years. There came together a contrasting population of trappers, fishermen, flat-boatmen, pirates, West Indian immigrants, Jesuit, Capuchin, and Benedictine missionaries, Spanish courtiers, and French Canadians from Acadia known variously as \u201cAcadiens,\u201d \u201cCadiens,\u201d and \u201cCajuns.\u201d[28]<\/a> The supply of wives for the early colonists being \u201cunsatisfactory in point of character,\u201d the King of France sent them a \u201ccargo of virtuous maidens who are chronicled as filles de la cassette<\/em>, or \u2018casket girls,\u2019\u201d so-called for the caskets they brought with them to hold the modest trousseaux provided by the king. The devout erudite Ursuline nuns who chaperoned the \u201ccasket girls\u201d in this strange land before marriage, \u00a0remained in the city to educate their children afterwards.[29]<\/a><\/p>\n
During the two decades after Louisiana became a part of America, a wave of Northerners migrated to New Orleans. These newcomers often intermarried with the native French and Spanish population. A second influx of Northerners coincided with the economic growth of the city in the years before 1837. Focused almost exclusively on mercantile interests, this second wave of Yankee settlers established retail and wholesale enterprises, and became sugar and cotton brokers, commission merchants, and served as agents of Northern banking, export, and merchandising houses. (The second wave of migration was temporarily halted by the depression of 1837.)[30]<\/a> In the 1840s New Orleans saw an influx of European immigrants, and a third wave of Northerners (who merged with members of the previous groups to form the northern-born community New Orleans.)[31]<\/a> This marked the beginning of a rapid \u201cAmericanization\u201d of the city. The pressure from social and economic competition was felt among the native Creoles. Though White Creoles maintained their identity until the Civil War, Black Creoles fared worse. A three-tiered caste system soon emerged.[32]<\/a> This was also the beginning of the active institutional handicapping of Francophone accessibility, which was viewed as the language of the poor among Anglo-Protestants. (That the Vyasa T.S. held their meetings in French may indicate a subversive element to the Branch.) The newly-arrived Anglo-Protestant Americans viewed Catholicism as idolatry, and thought the White Creoles were frivolous, uneducated, and lacking in business acumen. Other were unsettled by the degree of race-mixing, and the number and independence of the free Blacks.[33]<\/a> This gave rise to a fear of \u201cvoodoo,\u201d a term derived from the French \u201cvaudoux.\u201d Though some at the time believed that this stemmed from the Vaudois, a Christian sect from Pays de Vaud, France, that were accused of practicing witchcraft.[34]<\/a> The word, however, actually derived from the West African languages Ewe (\u201cvodu,\u201d)\u00a0and Fon\u00a0(\u201cvodun.\u201d)[35]<\/a> While Voodoo (and other spiritualities of African origin) were not officially sanctioned in colonial Louisiana, the French and Spanish governments were reasonably tolerant, and practitioners were rarely interfered with.[36]<\/a> We find Voodoo entering the English lexicon in the nineteenth-century, and gaining traction in the decade preceding the Civil War.\u00a0 This was just about the time that Madame Blavatsky was in New Orleans in 1851, and one of her biographers writes:<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
"\n
At New Orleans the principal interest of her visit centered in the Voodoos, a sect of negroes, natives of the West Indies, and half-castes, addicted to a form of magic practices that no highly trained occult student would have anything to do with, but which nevertheless presented attractions to Mme. Blavatsky, not yet far advanced enough in the knowledge held in reserve for her to distinguish \u201cblack\u201d from \u201cwhite\u201d varieties of mystic exercise. The Voodoos\u2019 pretensions were of course discredited by the educated white population of New Orleans, but they were none the less shunned and feared.[37]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/p>
It was claimed that these \u201cvoodoo\u201d ceremonies were dangerous because they brought people of different races together, encouraged abolitionist activities, and lured White women into \u201cunsavory practices.\u201d There was already a law forbidding the practice of Obeeyah (a blanket term used to describe African spirituality) as it was believed that it encouraged rebellion among the Black slaves. It was often vilified by conjuring images of \u201csorcery,\u201d and \u201cdevil-worship.\u201d June 24, the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, was said to be the great holiday of \u201cvoodoo\u201d practitioners. One paper of the time writes:<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
"\n
All nature in the far South has attained its grand climacteric. The poison plants are now fullest of their sap. Their life blood has grown thick, strong, and turgid under the semi-tropic heat. The things that feed upon them are swollen and fullest of their deadly quality and most powerful in malign instincts for destruction. So, far from civilized touch, where the remotest wilds of labyrinthine bayous sluggishly make their bends and coils and rear curious islands, where the hunter of the swamps but seldom wanders, where mighty alligators live without fear, in places like these, the worshippers of the Serpent meet on the night of St. John\u2019s day and enact their savage rites and strange incantations as old as their race.[38]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/p>
During the reconstruction following the Civil War, the eroticized imagery of voodoo was actively invoked to enflame the imagination. Voodoo was a great anxiety for the religion of racial-sexual-politics, and Black bodies became their \u201cfetish.\u201d By the 1890s segregation was firmly in place in New Orleans, and the mainstream media gleefully mocked anything of African origin.[39]<\/a> This sensationalism could even be found Theosophical literature. In the November 1890 issue of Lucifer<\/em>, in an article titled, \u201cAfrican Magic.\u201d[40]<\/sup><\/a> The article, however, was likely capitalizing on the news of the day. In early November 1890, the headlines stated that James Jameson (heir of the Jameson Whiskey distillery) had paid a slaver to witness a cannibalistic act while on the Stanley Expedition in Africa.[41]<\/a> Perhaps this fear of \u201cvoodoo\u201d was more a realization that the civility of claimed by the Whites in power was really only a charade.<\/p>\n
In the autumn of 1891, while in San Francisco, W.Q. Judge would be mocked by the columnist Ambrose Bierce.[42]<\/sup><\/a> Weeks later Bierce would publish a short story in the December 1891 issue of The Wave<\/em> (San Francisco) titled, \u201cThe Death Of Halpin Frayser.\u201d The work was notable, as it was one of, if not the first, \u201czombie\u201d story, a genre that would become synonymous with voodoo.[43]<\/a> Going back to the word \u201cmonster,\u201d perhaps we might find in the literature of this time an \u201comen\u201d of sorts. If horror is a way to give form to fear, than what fear might a \u201czombie\u201d personify? Immigration perhaps? Disease? That was certainly the case with another \u201cmonster\u201d that would come to be associated with the Crescent City, the Vampire. It was a creature that was enjoying some popularity in popular culture, the Theosophist, Franz Hartmann, writing on the subject in 1889.[44]<\/a> \u201cOf all the forms of the real or supposed intercourse between the living and dead,\u201d Olcott writes in 1891, \u201cthat of the vampire is the most loathsome. The horrid physical effects which follow after the burial of a corpse, have, no doubt, had much to do in creating the sentiment of disgust and terror which associates with the thought of this return of the dead to prey upon the living.\u201d[45]<\/a> Perhaps these writings influenced Bram Stoker (his sister-in-law, Lady Emily Thornley Stoker, joined the Theosophical Society in 1892.)[46]<\/a> As the subtext of Dracula<\/em> (1897) deals with an \u201cother\u201d who seduces Anglo women by means of sorcery, it\u2019s little surprise the theme should resonate in New Orleans. One could also read it as science vs. superstition, and the fear that the former would succumb to the latter. I imagine the second interpretation would have resonated with Dr. Lopez at the time. One of his patients, Elmire Marie Charpentier, was one of the most startling cases in medical history. In 1882, when she was 18 years old, she went into a trance. From that moment on, she would become comatose for twenty-two hours a day, appearing in a \u201cdeath-like\u201d state.[47]<\/a><\/p>\n
The second Branch in New Orleans, the Sarasvati Lodge T. S., was chartered on May 23, 1892 with five charter-member and was the 61st Branch on the American roll. Meetings were held at 142 Carondelet Street, but later removed to 150 Canal Street in the office of Dr. Lopez. It admitted both sexes and conducted its proceedings in English, \u201cthus meeting a need in that important city.\u201d[48]<\/a> Its President was Julia K. Chandler, and her son, Robert Chandler, was Secretary. Though a New Orleans native, Chandler joined the San Francisco T.S. in October 1891, and she no doubt imported some of the utopian flavor of Californian Bellamy-Nationalists<\/a>.[49]<\/a> (In 1897, Bacarisse became head of the first chapter of the Socialist National Union of the Brotherhood of Cooperative Commonwealth.)[50]<\/a> The Sarasvati Lodge, it was said, \u201cwas formed amid many discouragements and at first conducted through many struggles, but energy resulted in the establishment of a Headquarters in the heart of New Orleans and a gradual hold on the public.\u201d Its eventual success was due to the \u201ckind aid of Vyasa T.S.\u201d An active member of the Sarasvati wanted to form a Branch in Havana, as it was a \u201chopeful pros\u00adpect,\u201d while another member established a Branch in Spain. Around this time, some members of the Vyasa T.S. also went to Nicaragua, and chartered the Central American T.S. in March 13, 1894.[51]<\/a> (This may have affected the numbers of the Vyasa, for by 1894 women were admitted to that Branch.)[52]<\/a> At the Convention of the American Theosophical Society in 1893, the report for the Sarasvati Branch stated: \u201cTheosophists are translating documents for its benefit. We are also corresponding with and aiding a worker in the United States of Columbia, and are taking steps to give Theosophy to the colored people in our city. They can use the Headquarters whenever they form a Lodge.\u201d[53]<\/a> By 1893, more legislation was passed in New Orleans that saw greater racial segregation. The institutionalized \u201cothering\u201d of anyone who was not Anglo-Protestant, brought the outsiders closer together, however. The \u201ccommon alienation\u201d would produce a \u201ccreole\u201d music known as Jazz.[54]<\/a> The Theosophist, E.A. Neresheimer, when asked about the \u201cvirgin genius\u201d of American music at this time, would state:<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>
"\n
A deviation in rhythm, founded upon the sentiment which the negro has introduced into America. It is no doubt also true that just as most of the races of the world meet in this country, and to a certain extent tend to merge their peculiarities, the result being an original production; so with music the tendency is to assimilate the qualities of the music of the western world with possibly something of the oriental from\u2014which is gradually evolving a new style or school.[55]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n*
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** SOURCES:<\/p>\n
** *\u00a0<\/p>\n[1]<\/a> \u201cOrigin Of The Term \u2018Dixie.\u2019\u201d The Rand McNally Bankers\u2019 Monthly<\/em>. Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (July 1899): 16-17.<\/p>\n
[2]<\/a> \u201cHe Was From Ventura.\u201d The Los Angeles Herald. <\/em>(Los Angeles, California.) September 11, 1894.<\/p>\n
[3]<\/a> [\u201cHousekeeping In China.\u201d The Record-Union. <\/em>(Sacramento, California.) March 23, 1894.]\n<\/p>
[4]<\/a> Pietz, William. \u201cThe Problem Of The Fetish: Pt. I.\u201d Anthropology And Aesthetics<\/em>. No. 9 (Spring 1985): 5-17.<\/p>\n
[5]<\/a> \u201cTheosophy.\u201d The New York Echo<\/em>. (New York, New York) April 30, 1878; Olcott writes: \u201cM. Harrisse, our French friend, was a bit of an artist.\u201d [Olcott, Henry Steel. Old Diary Leaves: Volume I<\/em>. Theosophical Publishing Society. London, England. (1895): 203.] David A. Curtis elaborates further in another article: \u201c[Pashkova] met Mr. Harrisse, of the Haytian diplomatic service, and was by him introduced in a small social circle of friends, among whom was an old friend, Mme. Blavatsky.\u201d [Curtis, David A. \u201cA Modern Sibyl.\u201d The<\/em> Los Angeles Evening Express<\/em>. (Los Angeles, California) April 21, 1888.\u00a0] A \u201cMr. A. Harrisse, Attach\u00e9 Haytian Consulate, New York,\u201d is listed as a member of the Diplomatic Corp. in 1878-1879 at that time. The name Alfred Harrisse is also the name provided for Secretary of the Haytian Pavilion in the 1893 World\u2019s Fair. <\/em>[Official Congressional Directory.<\/em> U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. (1879): 125; Handy, Moses Purnell. World\u2019s Columbian Exposition 1893 Official Catalogue: Part I.<\/em> W. B. Conkey Company. Chicago, Illinois. (1893): 20.] Harrisse would produce the first known portrait of Master Morya. [Blavatsky, Helena P. Collected Writings Volume I (1874-1878.) <\/em>Theosophical Publishing House. Wheaton, Illinois. (1966): 435.]\n<\/p>
[6]<\/a> \u201cBranches of the Theosophical Society.\u201d The Theosophist<\/em>. Vol. X. (1889): General Report Of The Thirteenth Convention And Anniversary Of The Theosophical Society: 68-82.<\/p>\n
[7]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 726. (Website file: 1A:1875-1885) Charles E. Taylor. St. Thomas. Dutch West Indies. (3\/14\/1881); \u201cThe Danish West Indies.\u201d The Theosophist<\/em>. Vol. XI, No. 126 (March 1890): 343.<\/p>\n
[8]<\/a> Curtis IV, Edward E. Islam In Black America<\/em>. State University Of New York Press. Albany, New York. (2002): 65-66.<\/p>\n
[9]<\/a> Fiske, Amos Kidder. The West Indies: A History Of The Islands Of The West Indian Archipelago<\/em>. G. P. Putnam\u2019s Sons. New York, New York. (1911): 245.<\/p>\n
[10]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. III, No. 4 (July 1888): 132-136.<\/p>\n
[11]<\/a> Olcott, Henry S. \u201cThe Outlook.\u201d The Theosophist<\/em>. Vol. XI, No. 126 (March 1890): 285-292.<\/p>\n
[12]<\/a> Derby, Lauren. \u201cImperial Idols: French and United States Revenants In Haitian Vodou.\u201d\u00a0History of Religions<\/em>. Vol. LIV, No. 4 (May 2015): 394\u2013422.<\/p>\n
[13]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 3567. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) Carl F. Redwitz. (1\/14\/1886).<\/p>\n
[14]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. V, No. 4 (July 1890): 130-139.<\/p>\n
[15]<\/a> \u201crror Of The Movement.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. VII, No. 3 (June 1892): 91-100.<\/p>\n
[16]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. V, No. 9 (December 1890): 293-296.<\/p>\n
[17]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. V, No. 10 (January 1891): 324-327.<\/p>\n
[18]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. V, No. 11 (March 1891): 396-400; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 6348. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Rabbi Max Samfield. [Memphis T.S. 81 Markey Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 12\/2\/1890]; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 6349. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) William Holt Hotchkiss. [Memphis T.S. 298 Maine Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 12\/2\/1890.]\n<\/p>
[19]<\/a> Witt, Louis. \u201cRabbi Max Samfield.\u201d Central Conference Of American Rabbis. Twenty-Seventh Annual Convention<\/em>. Vol. XXVI. (1916): 211-212.<\/p>\n
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[23]<\/a> Birth: [Ancestry.com.\u00a0New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Marriage Records Index, 1831-1964<\/em>\u00a0[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002. Original data:\u00a0State of Louisiana, Secretary of State, Division of Archives, Records Management, and History.\u00a0Vital Records Indices<\/em>. Baton Rouge, LA, USA. Volume:\u00a09<\/em>; Page:\u00a0980<\/em>] Death: [Ancestry.com.\u00a0Louisiana, U.S., Statewide Death Index, 1819-1964<\/em>\u00a0[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002. Original data:\u00a0State of Louisiana, Secretary of State, Division of Archives, Records Management, and History.\u00a0Vital Records Indices<\/em>. Baton Rouge, LA, USAl; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 6016. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Charles J. Lopez. [Vyasa. 6\/2\/1890]\n<\/p>
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[28]<\/a> Henry, Jacques. \u201cFrom \u2018Acadien\u2019 To \u2018Cajun\u2019 To \u2018Cadien\u2019: Ethnic Labelization And Construction Of Identity.\u201d Journal Of American Ethnic History<\/em>. Vol. XVII, No. 4 (Summer 1998): 29-62.<\/p>\n
[29]<\/a> Doughty, Frances Albert. \u201cThe Underside Of New Orleans.\u201d Lippincott\u2019s Monthly Magazine<\/em>. Vol. LX, No. 4 (October 1897): 513-521.<\/p>\n
[30]<\/a> Chenault, William W; \u00a0Reinders, Robert C. \u201cThe Northern-born Community Of New Orleans In The 1850s.\u201d The Journal of American History<\/em>. Vol. LI, No. 2 (September 1964): 232-247.<\/p>\n
[31]<\/a> Chenault, William W; \u00a0Reinders, Robert C. \u201cThe Northern-born Community Of New Orleans In The 1850s.\u201d The Journal of American History<\/em>. Vol. LI, No. 2 (September 1964): 232-247.<\/p>\n
[32]<\/a> Fiehrer, Thomas. \u201cFrom Quadrille To Stomp: The Creole Origins Of Jazz.\u201d Popular Music<\/em>. Vol. X, No. 1 (January 1991): 21-38.<\/p>\n
[33]<\/a> Long, Carolyn Morrow. \u201cPerceptions Of New Orleans Voodoo: Sin, Fraud, Entertainment, And Religion.\u201d Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions<\/em>. Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 2002): 86-101.<\/p>\n
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[49]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 7557. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Julia K. Chandler. [San Francisco T. S. 1504 Market Street. San Francisco, California. (10\/24\/1891)]; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 7638. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Robert Chandler. (San Francisco T.S. 1504 Market Street. San Francisco, California. (11\/17\/1891)]; \u201cTheosophists.\u201d The Times-Picayune<\/em>. (New Orleans, Louisiana) May 27, 1892.<\/p>\n
[50]<\/a> Gessler, Anne. Cooperatives In New Orleans: Collective Action And Urban Development<\/em>. University Press Of Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi. (2020): 23\u201348.<\/p>\n
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[52]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 10596. (website file: 1D:1894-1897) Francine Eliza de Clifford. [Vyasa T. S. (1\/22\/1894.)]\n<\/p>
[53]<\/a> American Section Theosophical Society. Seventh Annual Convention Held At Aryan T.S. Hall, Headquarters, And At Scottish Rite Hall, New York, New York, April 23 and 24, 1893.<\/p>\n
[54]<\/a> Fiehrer, Thomas. \u201cFrom Quadrille To Stomp: The Creole Origins Of Jazz.\u201d Popular Music<\/em>. Vol. X, No. 1 (January 1991): 21-38.<\/p>\n
[55]<\/a> Neresheimer, E.A. \u201cMusic.\u201d Theosophy<\/em>. Vol. XVII, No. 5 (August 1897): 226-231.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had wanted to write about the Theosophical Society in the American South, and when thinking about what title I might choose, I remembered how strange the word \u201cDixie\u201d was. For many years I had assumed the word was a reference to the Mason-Dixon Line, and those States below it. I was wrong. We find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":9543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2583,2586,312,15,82,2580],"class_list":["post-9540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-haiti","tag-james-theodore-holly","tag-new-orleans","tag-occult","tag-theosophical-society","tag-voodoo"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dharma Of "Dixie."<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had wanted to write about the Theosophical Society in the American South, and when thinking about what title I might choose, I remembered how strange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/06\/the-dharma-of-dixie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dharma Of "Dixie."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had wanted to write about the Theosophical Society in the American South, and when thinking about what title I might choose, I remembered how strange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/06\/the-dharma-of-dixie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marginalia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-22T21:33:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1624\/2024\/06\/Screen-Shot-2024-06-22-at-5.32.45-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shawn F. Higgins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ColdCocinar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shawn F. 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