The Martha Roberson Possession

In 1835, in rural Morgan County, Alabama, a young woman named Martha Roberson became the center of a possession case that drew thousands of visitors from across the antebellum South. Her case combined elements of religious revival, medical mystery, and frontier drama in ways that captured the imagination of a young nation.

Background

Martha Roberson was a young woman living with her family in the hill country of northern Alabama. The region was on the edge of the American frontier in the 1830s, a place where religious fervor mixed with folk belief and where unusual events attracted great attention.

Martha was by all accounts unremarkable before her possession. She was a member of the local Baptist church and had experienced the religious revivals that periodically swept through the region.

The Onset

The phenomena began suddenly. Martha fell into trances from which she could not be awakened. During these states, she spoke in voices not her own and claimed knowledge of distant events she could not naturally know.

More dramatically, Martha began exhibiting physical symptoms that baffled physicians. Her body became rigid as stone. She went without food or water for extended periods—far longer than seemed medically possible. At times, her body seemed to levitate slightly from her bed.

Religious Interpretation

The Baptist community initially viewed Martha’s condition as a spiritual visitation. Her trances produced religious messages, prophecies about the community, and warnings about sinners. Crowds began gathering to hear her speak.

But the voices changed. They became profane, threatening, and blasphemous. Martha’s body contorted in impossible positions. She cursed the ministers who came to pray over her. The community’s interpretation shifted from divine visitation to demonic possession.

Medical Examination

Physicians from across Alabama came to examine Martha. They documented her extended fasts, her rigid cataleptic states, and her apparent insensitivity to pain during episodes. They could find no natural explanation.

One physician inserted pins into her skin during a trance; she showed no response. Another noted that her body temperature seemed to drop dramatically during episodes. The medical men left baffled.

Crowds and Controversy

Word of Martha’s possession spread across the South. Thousands traveled to Morgan County to witness the phenomena. The roads to her family’s home became clogged with carriages and wagons.

The attention brought controversy. Some visitors believed they witnessed genuine supernatural phenomena. Others suspected fraud and attempted to expose deception. Fights broke out between believers and skeptics.

Resolution

The possession ended after several months, though accounts differ on exactly how. Some versions claim that prolonged prayer finally drove out the demons. Others suggest that Martha simply recovered from what may have been a psychological or medical condition.

Martha returned to normal life. She married, had children, and never experienced similar phenomena again. She rarely spoke of the events of 1835.

Historical Context

The Martha Roberson case occurred during the Second Great Awakening, a period of intense religious revival in America. Possession cases, visions, and religious ecstasies were relatively common during this era.

The case also occurred in a region where folk beliefs remained strong. Beliefs about witchcraft, demonic forces, and spiritual warfare persisted on the American frontier.

Assessment

The Martha Roberson possession represents a particular type of American supernatural experience—rooted in frontier religion, witnessed by thousands, yet largely forgotten by history.

Whether Martha was genuinely possessed, suffering from a medical or psychological condition, or participating in a fraud (willing or unwilling) remains unknown. The case demonstrates how supernatural belief flourished on the American frontier and how such events became communal experiences in the absence of mass media.

Her brief moment as the most famous possessed woman in the South passed, and Martha Roberson disappeared into the ordinary life that followed her extraordinary episode.