Created by Emma Lavoie & Savita Maharaj
Introduction
The origins of The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book can be traced back to the early nineteenth century and a woman named Chloe Russell. Yet many scholars have many questions about what appears to be Russell’s only text. By examining critical reviews of The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book from the time of its publication and at the present moment, we gain not only an understanding of the literary and cultural environment at Russell’s time, but also recognize how our interpretation of literature changes over time.
Russell, Chloe, The Complete Fortune Teller, and Dream Book, 1824, Boston Athenaeum. Book.
Reactions to Russell’s Work at the Time of Its Publication
Old Aunt Dinah’s Policy Dream Book
Published in New York in 1850, this work was garishly racist in both its insulting caricature and naming: Comprising A Brief Collection of Dreams, Which Have Been Interpreted and Played with Wonderful Success to the Dreamer. Clearly attempting to undermine Black fortune-tellers, the mockery of Chloe Russell is exemplified through the recurrent use of the author as the “Old Witch or Black Interpreter.”
Old Aunt Dinah’s Policy Dream Book Comprising a Brief Collection of Dreams, Which Have Been Interpreted and Played with Wonderful Success to the Dreamer, Library Company of Philadelphia.1850. Book.
Multiple Editions
The earliest version of Russell’s dream book dates back to Boston in 1815 and allegedly leaves out Russell’s name. Later, two pamphlets that do portray Russell’s authorship are discovered, one published in Boston in 1822 and the other in Exeter in 1824. Comparison between one of these dream books and the earlier 1815 text reveals that the works do indeed match – exposing the prejudiced intent of the publisher and joining the tradition of purposely hiding “Black attribution” and accreditation to literary works.1 However, although the 1822 and 1824 editions included Russell’s name, the former includes a “crude woodcut portrait” of Russell and describes her as “a woman of colour of the state of Massachusetts,” seeking to emphasize her race.2 Meanwhile, the latter also labels her with a degrading yet now widely-known byline: the “Old Witch or Black Interpreter.
Reactions to Russell’s Work in Modern Times
Eric Gardner's Literary Criticism
Eric Gardner claims that, while much of Russell’s autobiography seems plausible, factual mistakes are made. Among elements that are fitting, Gardner analyzes that Russell’s reference to “the Fuller nation” could be linked to the Fulani people of West Africa and that “the fear of whites being monsters … echoes many early texts, including Olaudah Equiano’s.”3 He argues that it is nonsensical for Russell’s birthplace to be “three hundred miles south west” of Sierra Leone and that the “Tygers” she references are “a figment of Euro-American images of Africa.”4 Gardner also says that George Russels differed from Chloe Russell’s depiction and none died in the 1750s. He finds it particularly far-fetched that Russell did not attract more notice as a “free Black woman in Virginia who spent thousands of dollars to liberate other slaves.”5 These questionable details caused people to speculate that “‘Chloe Russel’ was invented by a publisher hoping to capitalize on the stereotype of the African American fortune-teller.”6 However, Gardner concludes that Russell was most likely a real author due to evidence from census records and Boston directories; “eleven of the thirteen Boston directories from 1821 through 1833 list a Chloe Russell … living on Belknap Street, at the heart of Boston’s lively black community.”7
Ambrose Wellington, “Sketch of the Abiel Smith School,” in The Boston Almanac, 1849, book.
Although Russell is no longer disregarded, her authoritative authenticity and persona is questioned, revealing how authorship is still considerably harder for Black authors than white ones. The parallels of this racial prejudice are very evident at the present moment.
Reactions to the Practice of Fortune-Telling in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Fortune-Telling as Women’s Work in 20th Century Australia
During the 1900s, fortune-telling was a female-dominated business in Australia Female fortune-tellers were referred to as “hordes of harpies” who made their business from “members of the weaker sex.” Working-class women commonly saw fortune-tellers as a “psychological outlet” for emotional concerns or simply “an amusing diversion from everyday life.”9 As a byproduct of the misogynistic social climate, men often condemned the practice and simply viewed fortune-telling as a fraud.
Fortune-telling quickly shifted from an economical pastime to a full-time profession. Over time divination manuals were produced, newspaper advertisements for palmists and clairvoyants gained popularity, and fortune-tellers shifted from the domestic realm of households to public retail outlets and street stalls. This integration of fortune-telling into the professional world was met with contempt as media outlets saw fortune-telling as having “invaded the city’s business places.”10
Crowe, Catherine, Beadle's dime book of dreams: their romance and mystery, with a complete interpretation dictionary, 1867, Book.
Although from a social standpoint, women engaging in the fortune telling were typically respected, authoritative figures often ignored violation of the law as fortune-telling became technically illegalized However, as time progressed, British legislation pushed fortune-telling as a legal offense, and those who engaged in it were quickly criminalized by journalists and the broader public.
The Cultural Climate for 20th Century Women Fortune-Tellers in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, fortune-telling was slightly more socially acceptable, but not without its fair share of conflicts. Similar to in Australia, fortune-telling was predominantly practiced by women for women, typically surrounding topics of love and marriage. The practice was also divided by class and geography ast was generally frowned upon for upper-middle class clients to utilize fortune-telling services, revealing the “bourgeois norms of the time.”11 Lower-class women made up the main clientele for fortune-tellers. Geographically, fortune-telling often only existed in urban areas, where “the independent type of woman entrepreneur” was appreciated and embraced.12
Netscher, Caspar, “Fortune Teller,” 1666-70, oil on canvas.
Significance to Russell's Work
While certainly part of vastly different cultural and racial atmospheres, women in the Netherlands and in Australia, in particular, experienced different forms of social oppression that influenced gender. Even with all the restrictions associated with being a woman in the early 20th century, there are certain privilegesChloe Russell most likely would not have had access to, such as the authorities in Australia who allowed women to break the law and the Netherlands' acceptance of independent female entrepreneurship.
Endnotes
1. The Library Company of Philadelphia, The Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Year 2007 (Philadelphia: 2007) 22
2. The Library Company of Philadelphia, The Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Year 2007 (Philadelphia: 2007) 22
3. Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book:’ An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2005), 263.
4. Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book:’ An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2005), 264
5. Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book:’ An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2005), 263-264
6. Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book:’ An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2005), 264
7. Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book:’ An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2005), 264 -265
8. Piper, Alana. “Women's Work: The Professionalisation and Policing of Fortune-Telling in Australia.” Labour History, no. 108, (2015): 38
9. Piper, Alana. “Women's Work: The Professionalisation and Policing of Fortune-Telling in Australia.” Labour History, no. 108, (2015): 39
10. Piper, Alana. “Women's Work: The Professionalisation and Policing of Fortune-Telling in Australia.” Labour History, no. 108, (2015): 42
11. De Blécourt, Willem, and Cornelie Usborne. “Women's Medicine, Women's Culture: Abortion and Fortune-Telling in Early Twentieth-Century Germany and The Netherlands.” Medical History, vol. 43, no. 3, (1999): 389.
12. De Blécourt, Willem, and Cornelie Usborne. “Women's Medicine, Women's Culture: Abortion and Fortune-Telling in Early Twentieth-Century Germany and The Netherlands.” Medical History, vol. 43, no. 3, (1999): 387
Bibliography
Ambrose Wellington. “Sketch of the Abiel Smith School,” in The Boston Almanac. 1849. Book
Chireau, Yvonne Patricia, and Boston Athenaeum. “Chloe Russell, The Compleat Fortuneteller.” Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition, University of California Press, 2006.
Crowe, Catherine. Beadle's dime book of dreams: their romance and mystery, with a complete interpretation dictionary.1867, Book
De Blécourt, Willem, and Cornelie Usborne. “Women's Medicine, Women's Culture: Abortion and Fortune-Telling in Early Twentieth-Century Germany and The Netherlands.” Medical History, vol. 43, no. 3, 1999, pp. 376–392., doi:10.1017/S0025727300065418.
Gardner, Eric. “‘The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book’: An Antebellum Text ‘By Chloe Russel, a Woman of Colour.’” The New England Quarterly, vol. 78, no. 2, 2005, pp. 259–288. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30045526. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.
Netscher, Caspar. “Fortune Teller. 1666-70, oil on canvas.
“Old Aunt Dinah's Policy Dream Book.” Omeka RSS, ds-exhibits.swarthmore.edu/con-am/items/show/51.
Piper, Alana. “Women's Work: The Professionalisation and Policing of Fortune-Telling in Australia.” Labour History, no. 108, 2015, pp. 37–52. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5263/labourhistory.108.0037. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.
Russell, Chloe, The Complete Fortune Teller, and Dream Book, 1824, Boston Athenaeum. 1824, Book
The Library Company of Philadelphia, 2007, pp. 21–22, The Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia for the Year 2007.