Faubourg Treme was the largest neighborhood of free black people in New Orleans in the mid-1800s. In that diverse city, rich and poor, black and white, and free and enslaved created the culture that distinguishes New Orleans today. Part of that culture was born out of Spiritualism.

In 1858, Thomas Gales Forster and J. Rollin M. Squire, Banner of Light editors arrived in New Orleans to lecture on Spiritualism and hold private séance circles. One person who took an interest in their demonstrations was clerk, accountant and political activist, Henry Rey.

Rey, the son of Louis Barthelemy and Rose Agnes Rey, descended from Haitian Immigrants who moved to New Orleans after the 1809 Haitian Revolution from Cuba.  Rey’s interest in Spiritualism began when his father died in 1852. After his father’s spirit appeared to him, Rey attended a séance at the home of medium Soeur (sister) Louise. She gave him a pencil and paper and through Rey, his father wrote, “Write our dictation, and then you will not be tired.”

Rey married Adele Crocky in 1857 and they had four children. During those years, he not only became a medium, he documented the locations, dates, and participants who attended his Cercle Harmonique seances. He also recorded the happenings that transpired during the circles and the names of the spirits who visited. Rey’s records dated from the 1860s and 1870s and were written in French.

Like other black Creoles, Rey fought for the South during the Civil War in hopes of gaining a pension and right to vote, but neither happened. Instead, he was appointed to the school board and work to integrate the school system. He also served in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1868- 1870) and became the Third District Assessor.

Rey’s Cercle Harmonique ended in 1877 as Spiritualism began to wane. For a short time in 1890, Rey resumed his mediumship, but did not continue.  Fellow medium, François “Petit” Dubuclet, became Rey’s close friend over the years and held on to the séance registers after Rey died in 1894. They were passed to his son-in-law and then donated to the University of New Orleans. Today, one can read that the records not only document Rey’s séance circles, they reflect the political and social events of the time.

Additional Reading:

Daggett, Melissa (2016) Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.