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Abstract
A special mode of resistance, insolence, forced the Southern gentry to acknowledge a unique power among slaves: their speech. This essay (1) explains the lasting significance of the gentry's efforts to suppress slave speech, (2) recounts the elements of insolence according to ancient and modern authorities on rhetoric, and (3) illustrates how slaves suffered for using this discursive tactic effectively. The nature and limits of slave insolence illuminate several troubled dimensions of plantation society.