Rhetoric of Doom and Redemption: Reverend Jermain Loguen's Jeremiadic Speech Against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850

Abstract

In his monumental speech protesting the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Rev. Jermain W. Loguen urges his fellow townsmen of Syracuse, NY, an “open city” to fugitives, to defy the new federal legislation by protecting the city's fugitives from federal marshals en route to apprehend them. My analysis of Loguen's speech examines his use of American and African American jeremiadic strategies to convince his audience of primarily white Christian abolitionists that their unified resistance against the new law was part of God's providential plan to redeem the nation of the sin of slavery. My study also reveals how Loguen's appeals to manhood, through associating divine punishment with the emasculation of American men, as well as his establishment of “identification” around shared religious and political values, proved effective in rallying Syracuse's citizens to defend their God-given freedom.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the constructive comments from the reviewers and the insightful feedback from my dear colleagues, Glen McClish and Suzanne Bordelon, whose guidance greatly enhanced the quality of my article.

Notes

1. See Bordewich (2005, 324–325, 410–413); Mattis (2001, 273–274); and Bacon (2002, 32–33). Loguen is also briefly mentioned in Strong (1999) and Griffler (2004).

2. Reprints of the speech appear in Clara Merritt DeBoer's (1994) Be Jubilant My Feet: African American Abolitionists in the American Missionary Association, 1839–1861 and Philip S. Foner and Robert J. Brahnam's (1998) Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787–1900.

3. All of Douglass's autobiographical narratives, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1999), My Bondage and My Freedom (2003), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1962), exemplify the use of personal experiences as facts to enlighten readers about the institution of slavery and the humanity of African Americans.

4. The bulk of the information included in Loguen's biography comes from Carol Hunter's (1993) To Set the Captives Free: Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen and the Struggle for Freedom in Central New York, 1835–1872, unless otherwise noted.

5. See Hunter (1993, 111); Johnson (1921, 169).

6. Also see Charles Rosenberg (1973, 131–153).

7. Revelation 5.1–10 describes Jesus as both the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” and the “Lamb standing as though it had been slain.”

8. Similarly, Luke 10.11–12 reads, “Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you… . I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

9. Although addressing African Americans in this speech, Walker's reference to white Americans as “those enemies” places them in the inferior and precarious position of those awaiting God's judgment.

10. See Walker and Smithers (2009); Harrell (2010); and Murphy (2011).