In the 19th century along the Erie Canal, new faiths emerged that questioned everything we believed about morality, equality, love, life and death. Burned Over is a feature-length documentary about two unique American religious movements: Spiritualism, the belief that the living can communicate with the dead, and the Oneida Community, a free love commune. Both began in 1848 in the Burned-Over District of New York State, named for the metaphorical fires of spiritual exploration that consumed the region.
John Humphrey Noyes and his dozens of original followers arrived in the Burned-Over District from Putney, Vermont, where the discovery of their practice of “complex marriage,” a form of free love, led to their exile. Eventually, the success of the Oneida Community’s brand of animal traps funded the construction of the Mansion House, which at its peak housed nearly 300 commune members. Complex marriage, along with many other practices, was designed to free women from the shackles of motherhood and to establish a progressive utopia free of want. However, the commune suffered predictably from a monocratic system led by the all-too-human Noyes. In 1879, as rumors of his arrest for the community’s sexual practices swirled, Noyes fled to Niagara Falls, Canada. The commune quickly dissolved and reformed around its burgeoning silverware business, soon to become the biggest in the world.
The same year Noyes arrived in New York, the Fox family of Hydesville was being tormented by late night thumps of an unknown origin. On March 31, 1848, after weeks of sleepless nights, Katie and Maggie Fox, ages 11 and 14, began communicating with the spirit responsible. Through yes or no questions answered by audible raps, they were able to ascertain that the noises were being made by the ghost of a peddler who had been murdered in the house by a previous occupant. Word spread quickly and hundreds of visitors inundated the house. The Fox sisters would come to embrace their notoriety, performing séances in auditoriums and private sessions. Spiritualism, with its direct access to the divine and lack of an established hierarchy, grew quickly. Over time, the religion the Fox sisters originated left them behind as they struggled to make ends meet as mediums frequently derided as frauds.
The Burned-Over District spans the length of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo and stretches from the Great Lakes to the Finger Lakes. In this new frontier, people felt called to create the America they wished to see. Politically, it served as the headwaters of the abolitionist, women’s suffrage, and temperance movements. Theologically, it was the crucible from which a whole new American spirituality would be forged. Burned Over combines scenic photography of historical sites, interviews with experts, archival materials never seen on television, and observational scenes of our story’s modern-day torchbearers to tell a uniquely American history with deep implications.
Burned Over is a sponsored project of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). NYFA is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization founded in 1971 to work with the arts community throughout New York State and the United States to develop and facilitate programs in all disciplines. To make a tax-deductible donation towards the production of Burned Over, please visit the project’s NYFA page.
Burned Over is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
It is also possible thanks to contributions from 179 backers on Kickstarter. Thank You!