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Henry Slade (1835–1905) was a famous medium and spiritualist who lived and performed across North America and Europe. He was acclaimed, most notably, for the use of slate-writing. During the ritual, a small slate and a piece of chalk would be placed under the table, and the messages revealed on the slate after the seance was performed were allegedly written by the spirit that had been reached.

The following letter to the editor of the Montreal Star from a Montreal resident was uncovered by John Robert Colombo for his book More True Canadian Ghost Stories.

A Montrealer’s Experience with Slade, the Spiritualist

To the Editor of the Star: Sir — I notice that two or three of your correspondences have been discussing spiritualism in your columns of late. I took some interest in the discussion, as I have had some strange experience of spiritualists, and I do not know whether mediums are frauds or connecting links between man and the spirit land. But I will tell you what occurred to me in New York the other day. I heard a good deal about Slade, the medium. He is said to be by far the best-known “slate-writing medium” in the world. Whether his power is due to hypnotic influences, or to what Dr. Hammond called “syggognicism,” I do not know, but he certainly can perform some of the most remarkable things it has ever been my lot to witness. But I will tell you exactly all I saw. I saw Slade at midday. The room was well furnished, and of course there was plenty of light. I was courteously received, and was then invited to take my seat at a walnut table. I asked permission to look under the table to see if there was any apparatus by which he could be assisted, and he replied “Certainly.” I knocked on the table, turned it over and failed to see anything unusual. Then I sat down and Slade sat opposite me. He took my hands and the raps commenced at once. He ordered them whenever he pleased and he was obeyed. I asked if he would allow me to put my foot on his and again he replied “Certainly,” and with both his hands in mine and both his feet under my feet the raps continued the same as ever, I was satisfied. I could not discover how the raps were produced, and I believed that Slade could produce raps whenever he pleased without detection. Then I asked for the slate trick. But on this point I may tell you that I had brought my own slate. I could not be satisfied by allowing Slade to use one of his. It might be merely rubbed over with some chemical compound that by turning towards the light might cause words or phrases to reappear. So I brought my own and am satisfied that Slade did not tamper with it. I had even provided the pencil and when I told Slade, he said “All right.” I handed him the slate and he placed it on the table and I bent over and immediately heard a scratching sound inside. This continued for some time, when the slate was opened and the following message was written in a plain hand:

Why will people doubt when the fountain of wisdom is open and the truth of the new life made manifest to all. In a few years all will see the truths of which we know, and those who see them now are the heralds of the coming dawn. B. Franklin

I was puzzled. I did not believe that the spirit of “B. Franklin” had written these words, but I wondered if Slade had ever been under the influence of syggognicism or hypnotics? I did not think so, for I experienced no sensation such as people feel in recovering from the trance, I was the same then as I am now, writing this letter at home. But I must tell you more.

I asked Slade if he could give me a message from some well-known Canadian, and he replied, “I shall try.” Once more the slate was closed, and soon after opened again, and the following letter, in a different handwriting, appeared on the slate:

There are principles and forces in nature unknown to science, and the ethics of spiritualism is their crowning glory. D’Arcy Mcgee

It will be seen that the spelling of McGee was wrong, and on pointing this out to Slade he said that he could not account for these things. Sometimes the spirits of the late illiterate made no mistakes, and sometimes the spirits of the late accomplished many.

But the marvellous was still before me. I saw a white hand and arm pull my trousers. A slate I held in my hand was jerked out of it, and passing under the table was then placed upon it. What could have done it? It was like shooting a rifle bullet around a corner. A hand patted me on the cheek. I saw it, felt it, but could not grasp it. There was no mistake unless indeed I was in a trance. The table was lifted until the four legs were six inches from the ground and with all my force I could not press it down. There was some force at work, but what it was I do not know, and when the performance was over, I left more bewildered than ever.

According to Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, slate-writing, which was a staple of many nineteenth-century mediums, was first employed and made popular by Henry Slade.

In 1876, John Nevil Maskelyne, a member of the Magic Circle and founder of the Occult Committee who was interested in exposing fraud and dispelling the notion of supernatural power, was called to testify against Slade in a London court.

As outlined in Tatiana Kontou’s The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult, Maskelyne, the author of the 1875 books Modern Spiritualism and The Fraud of Theosophy, was asked to reveal to the court how slate-writing could be performed without any spiritual assistance.

“There are slate-writing mediums such as Slade, who can use the toes for writing messages on slates laid on the floor under the table,” writes David Phelps Abbott in the 1912 book Behind the Scenes with the Mediums. “The medium wears a shoe that he can slip off the foot easily, and the end of the stocking is cut away.”

Even though Slade was exposed as a trickster, charged with fraud, and eventually disappeared from spiritualism circles, the inclusion of slate-writing in seances continues.