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Original Articles

Slave resistance and rhetorical self‐definition: Spirituals as a strategy

Pages 177-192 | Published online: 06 Jun 2009
 

Abstract

This essay asserts that African‐American slaves used their spirituals to provide themselves with a rhetorical self‐definition that served to refute limiting definitions pressed on them by whites. As a form of slave resistance to psychological oppression, the spirituals were used to limit the slaves' value to owners while enabling them to assert their worth as human beings.

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