Transcript Revolutionary Rhetoric IV

DECLARATIONS IN DIALOGUE
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: ABOLITIONIST,
ORATOR, AUTOBIOGRAPHER
THREE ENCOUNTERS WITH DOUGLASS
• Another 19th-century social movement tests Enlightenment ideas: abolition
• Ethos in two genres and two media:
• A written slave narrative
• An epideictic speech (speech for a special occasion)
• Douglass’s rhetorical challenges and choices
ETHOS-RELATED CHALLENGES FOR DOUGLASS
• Good standing (aretê: status, excellence) –
• the problem of the exceptional character in social reform rhetoric:
representing others
• the former slave as living evidence
• Good judgment (phronêsis) – the power of the story vs. the argument against
slavery
• Good will (eunoia) – how does a black speaker present slavery to a white
audience?
GENRE
• Autobiography: a crafted story
• Slave narrative: a familiar genre
• Both genres located between history and literature
• Rhetorical purposes: for self-reflection, to create a
public picture of the self and the life, to advance a
cause through the narrative of a life experience
AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• Puritans as God’s elect; preoccupation with the self -- diaries, journals,
meditations
• Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative” (c. 1740)
• Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (1771-88)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (1841): “Man is his own
star”
• Enlightenment focus on the individual: responsibility for actions, autonomy,
“striving,” isolation
• America: an exceptional land; a new and empty land; opportunities for
creativity: “the American, this new man” (Crèvecoeur)
SLAVE NARRATIVES
• Documentary contributions requiring interpretation
• Very popular form: over 100 book-length slave narratives
• Relation between speeches and print texts: narratives as “structured
formal revisions of spoken works organized and promoted by anti-slavery
organizations” (Davis and Gates xvi)
“It was the face of the race that the slave narrators painted, so as to give it a
voice. It is this notion of the presence of voice and self-creation through
representation, transferred to writing through the metaphor of voice, which motivated
the ex-slaves to produce hundreds of testimonies of their enslavement . . . ” (Davis
and Gates xxxi).
Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. The Slave’s Narrative. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
SOME SLAVE NARRATIVES 1760-1845
•
1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narratives of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African, written by Himself. London.
•
1831, Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, With a
Supplement by the Editor, to Which is Added the Narrative of Asa-Asa, A Captured African.
London.
•
1833, Richard Allen. The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors of the Right Reverend Richard
Allen. Philadelphia.
•
1836, Jarena Lee, The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, Giving
an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel. Revised and Corrected from the Original
Manuscript, Written by Herself. Philadelphia.
•
1840, Juan Francisco Manzano, Poems by a Slave in the Island of Cuba, recently liberated,
translated from the Spanish, by R. R. Madden, M. D., with the History of the Early Life of the
Negro Poet, written by Himself . . . London.
ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT(S)
Extensive history in England, France, and American
1775, Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, Philadelphia
(Quakers)
1775, Thomas Paine, “African Slavery in America”
Gradual elimination of slavery in the North: Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Slave trade outlawed by 1825, but illegal slave trade continued (e.g., Amistad)
1833, American Anti-Slavery Society, founded by William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld,
and Robert Purvis
•
The Liberator, newspaper, 1831-1865
•
Tenets of Garrison’s abolitionism:
• Immediate emancipation
• Disaffiliation with the U.S. government: the Constitution as a pro-slavery
document
• Pacifism
FROM THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE LIBERATOR, JANUARY 1,
1831
“To the Public” (page 1)
Assenting to the‘self-evident truth maintained in the
American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all men are created
equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights-among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ I shall
strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave
population.”
"I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but
is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as
uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or
write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not
excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
All issues available online through UCI Library: 19th Century U.S. Newspapers
The newspaper speaks!
. . . I come, a stranger in this busy
sphere,
...
My name is ‘liberator’! I propose to
hurl my shafts at freedom’s deadliest
foes
...
to redeem the slave!
DOUGLASS, ABOLITIONIST
•
1838, New Bedford, Mass -- subscription to The Liberator: “my soul was set on fire”;
“sympathy for my brethren in bonds”; “I got a pretty correct idea of the principles,
measures and spirit of the anti-slavery reform . . . I took right hold of the cause” (Narrative
119)
•
First speech, 1841; hired as a lecturer by Garrison’s organization; approximately 200
speeches between 1839 and 1845, composition of the Narrative ( Blassingame lxxxvii-cii)
•
Few autobiographical details; more analysis: “the proslavery character of American
churches, freedom of speech, nonresistance, northern economic support of slavery, the
right of petition, northern racial prejudice, black suffrage, imprisonment of fugitive slaves,
etc.” (Blassingame xlvii-liii)
•
As a fugitive slave, “Douglass drew from his own experiences to produce graphic
illustrations of the peculiar institution. He appeared as both victim and victor, exhibiting
the nobility and intellect of blacks, and the contradiction that was slavery” (Blassingame
xlvii).
John W. Blassingame, ed. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews.
Vol. 1: 1841-46. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
PRESSURE TO TELL HIS STORY
• “By 1844, Douglass’s oratorical skills and thoughtful analyses caused many
observers to doubt him; some claimed he had never been inside the peculiar
institution.”
• Danger for a fugitive slave to reveal details: possibility of recapture
• Douglass responds to pressure by writing the Narrative (1845): 9 reprints in
three years, 11,000 copies, translations
• Anxiety about recapture after the publication of the book leads to extended
tour of Great Britain
DOUGLASS, AUTOBIOGRAPHER
First autobiography of three:
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, 1845
• My Bondage and My
Freedom, 1855
• Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass, 1881
• Representative
Man/Rhetorical Man
3 ETHOS-RELATED RHETORICAL CHALLENGES:
•
1. speaking for himself, speaking for others: the power of the exceptional life story
•
2. beyond spectacle: becoming more than living evidence, the body on display
•
3. embedding the argument within the story: the power of the life story
Romancing the story: “Above all else, this book . . . Is a great story told, like most other great
stories, out of the will to be known and the will to write” (Blight 1; see also Gates).
Propaganda? (Blight 7, 10, 13, 14, 20, 22) Manipulation? (Blight 10, 13)
My thesis: Blight’s emphasis on the story, along with his frequent references to “propaganda”
and “manipulation” diminish the force of Douglass’ Narrative as a rhetorical contribution to
the abolitionist movement.
Rhetors in 19th-century social movements construct ethos so as to dramatize the process by which
experience forces a critical analysis of the social order and, in so doing, support arguments for
change
REPRESENTATIVE MAN
THE PROBLEM OF THE
LIFE AND BODY AS
EVIDENCE
“It was at once deeply impressed upon my
mind, that, Mr. Douglass could be . . . a
stunning blow at the same time inflected on
Northern prejudice against a colored
complexion”
(“Preface” by Garrison 32-33).
Douglass introduced as “chattel,” “a thing,” a
piece of southern ‘property’” (Blassingame l).
Douglass participates: “This head, these
limbs, this body, I have stolen from my
master!” (1846)
from “living evidence” to political actor
• Douglass’ relationship with Garrison: tutelage
• Peabody’s 1849 review on the Narrative: “He is one of the living
evidences that there is in the colored population of the South no
natural incapacity for the enjoyment of freedom. . . . [He may be] a
most useful laborer in the cause of human rights” (138).
• Nathaniel P. Rogers’ review of an 1844 address (139-41): The
narrative was “dullish in manner,” but after he closes the narrative he
“let out the outraged humanity that was laboring in him, in indignant
and terrible speech . . . [reference to Toussaint] . . . He was not up as
a speaker--performing. He was an insurgent slave taking hold on the
right of speech, and charging on his tyrants the bondage of his race”
(141)
“Taking hold of the right of speech”
A dramatic life story in 11 chapters:
•
I-IV – through the gates of hell: slave child with no family; hunger, cold, witness to violence;
subject to brutal economies and lawlessness
•
V – sent to Baltimore through “the work of Providence”: “I was chosen.” F. has a “deep
conviction” that he would not always be a slave (62)
•
VI-VII -- literacy instruction, interrupted, pursued: “From that moment, I understood the pathway
from slavery to freedom” (64); Columbian Orator; on the docks, the idea of escape
•
VIII-IX – setbacks: assessed as property, back to the plantation – the “mean” Master Thomas
(76)
•
X – descent into hell:
• field work, sent to Covey, the slave-breaker: “the dark night of slavery closed in upon me;
and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (81)
• An appeal to God, apostrophe to the ships: “O that I were free! O, that I were on one of
your gallant decks” (83-84)
• Fighting Covey: “a turning point in my career as a slave”; the “sense of my own
manhood” (89): “a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of
freedom” (89)
•
XI – abortive escape; final escape: “I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions”
(112)
Douglass’ Narrative: analysis and argument
Chapter I: family
• “My father was a white man.” “I never saw my
mother . . .” (42): destruction of family bonds
• sexual exploitation; “a very different-looking class of
people” (44)
• Violence: F. as witness and participant (45) – reading
ethos in the silences
WHAT CAN THE READER (WHITE, NON-SLAVE)
KNOW ABOUT THE LIFE OF THE SLAVE?
Questioning “the will to be known” as a satisfactory interpretation:
The whipping of Aunt Hester: “I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with
which I beheld it” (45).
In Baltimore, seeing Sophie: “I wish I could describe the rapture that flashed
through my soul . . . “(62).
[seated at my writing table or confined in slavery]
“It is impossible for me to describe my feelings as the time of my contemplated
start drew near” (110).
“I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. I
have never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself”
(111).
HOW WELL CAN THE SLAVE (OR THE AUTHOR)
KNOW HIMSELF, THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHER
SLAVES?
•
Ch. II - Slave songs: “I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of
those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I
neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear” (51).
•
“The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit . . . “
•
“As I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down
my cheek . . . My first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of
slavery.”
•
Douglass re-experiencing the wrongs of slavery
•
If anyone wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go . .
. , place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the
sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul . . . “ (51)
“Slavery” is not something immediately available to experience. It is learned, reflected upon,
remembered.
ANALYSIS CONTINUED
economic, social, and legal conditions of plantation life – an
ethnographic effort (Ch. II-IV)
Psychological analysis: s laves as subject to the allure of
privilege (49); subject to prejudices (54-55); slave-owners
corrupted by “the blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery”
(63). RE Sophia Auld: “slavery proved as injurious to her as it did
to me” (66)
No rule of law for slaves: “To be accused was to be convicted,
and to be convicted was to be punished; the one always following
the other with immutable certainty” (56); slaves as property:
inheritance, division, failure to emancipate (72-73)
Differences within the category: city slaves have much better
circumstances than those on the plantation
CHAPTER VII, THE COLUMBIAN ORATOR
• Heard students reading from
The Columbian Orator on
the docks; bought a copy
• Dialogue between master
and slave
• Sent back to plantation:
taught other slaves to read
the New Testament on
Sundays
“Dialogue between a master and a slave”
in Caleb Bingham’s Columbian Orator, 1797
(Blight 129-31)
•
The slave is represented as having been recaptured, . . . and the master opens the
dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, and
demanding to know what he has to say in his own defense.
•
The slave rejoins, that he knows how little any thing that he can say will avail, . . .
and with noble resolution, calmly says, ‘I submit to my fate.’
Contact with rhetorical culture of the era: imagining agency within a public
•
“Touched by the slave‘s answer, the master tells him he is permitted to speak for
himself. Thus invited to the debate, the slave made a spirited defense of himself, and
thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought out. The master
was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and seeing himself to be thus
vanquished, he generously and meekly emancipates the slave, with his best wishes
for his prosperity. . . .
I could not help feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers
made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their counterpart in
myself.”
•
“The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the
conscience of even a slaveholder” (68)
•
Sheridan’s speeches for emancipation of Catholics: “a powerful vindication of human
rights” (68)
ARGUMENTS ABOUT SLAVERY
•
The master does not take away the
liberty of the slave he purchases;
the issue of consent
•
That liberty was lost by force not right
•
“It is in the order of Providence
that one man should become
subservient to another”; masters
not to blame for the custom they did
not originate
•
Providence can just as well warrant
theft, escape, and retaliation
•
The good master: generosity is
owed for kind treatment
•
No such relations are possible under
the condition of master/slave
•
The good master can provide
support in old age for the slave.
•
Death would be preferable to old age
in the condition of slavery
•
If I freed you, you should appreciate
the favor.
•
Granting liberty to a slave is only
righting a wrong--not deserving of
praise and gratitude.
SLAVE AS ANIMAL
• From the “Dialogue” in Columbian Orator: “You have
reduced them to the state of brute beasts; and if they have not
the stupidity of beasts of burden, they must have the ferocity of
beasts of prey. Superior force alone can give you security. . . .
Such is the social bond between master and slave!” (131)
• “I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often
wished myself a beast . . . Any thing, no matter what, to get rid
of thinking!” (68).
RACE, LABOR, AND DISCRIMINATION IN THE
NORTH
• Race and labor (103-04): black and white shipcarpenters: “the slightest manifestation of humanity
toward a colored person was denounced as
abolitionism, and that name subjected its bearer to
frightful liabilities” (105)
• Prosperous and generous blacks in the north (117), but
no work as a caulker, given “the strength of prejudice
against color” (118)
LITERACY: AN INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT?
“What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved,
that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be
carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought;
and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning
to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination
to learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter
opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I
acknowledge the benefit of both” (64).
Rhetorical figure: antithesis – style as “manipulation” or a way of
thinking through conventions of artistry?
From “the will to write” to the need for a “reading
public”
“Literacy” as a communal/dialogic/public project: Douglass’ analysis of and participation in
publics (and counter publics)
• Slave songs: “the “the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest
anguish” (51)
• slaves suppressing the truth (54): “a still tongue makes a wise head” (maxim)
• turning poor white boys into teachers (67), but also interlocutors – “I used to talk this
matter of slavery over with them” – they created a public on the docks
•
F. – a ready listener: what is “abolition”?; newspaper article about petitions (69)
• • writing as technical writing (70); copybooks
• • back on the plantation: Mr. Wilson’s Sabbath school (78)
• • Frederick teaching Sabbath school (94); teaching slaves at home (95)
FOR WED./THURS.
Douglass’ Narrative:
Thought, Affiliation, sympathy