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Blackwell, Anna (ca. 1870)

British author and publicist for Spiritualism and Spiritism, which is the name generally given to the form of Spiritualism developed in France by Allan Kardec. Spiritism differed from Spiritualism by its incorporation of reincarnation into its belief system. Blackwell became a follower of Spirtualism in the 1860s, a belief conformed by her own experiences. In 1869 she gave evidence to the Committee of the London Dialectical Society and contributed a paper dated July 1870 and published in their Report on Spiritualism (London, 1871). She had had some psychic experiences herself, having seen visions and had spirit forms appear on photographs that she had taken. During the 1870s she encountered Kardec's writings and began the process of translating them into English. She emerged as a prominent exponent of his teachings. Her mature thought was presented in her last book, co-authored with G. F. Green, The Probable Effect of Spiritualism upon the Social, Moral, and Religious Condition of Society (1876).