“Do you understand your own language?” Revolutionary topoi in the rhetoric of African‐American abolitionists

Works cited

• Beecher , Catharine E. 1837 . An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reference to the Duty of American Females Philadelphia
   Google Scholar
• Bledsoe , Albert Taylor . “Liberty and Slavery: Or, Slavery in the Light of Moral and Political Philosophy” . Elliott , 269 – 458 .
   Google Scholar
• Bormann , Ernest G. , ed. 1971 . Forerunners of Black Power: The Rhetoric of Abolition , Englewood Cliffs : Prentice‐Hall .
   Google Scholar
• Brent , Linda and Jacobs , Harriet A. 1987 . Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself , Edited by: Child , Lydia Maria and Yellin , Jean Fagan . Cambridge : Harvard UP . 1861.
   Google Scholar
• Burke , Kenneth . 1969 . A Rhetoric of Motives , Berkeley : U of California P . 1950.
   Google Scholar
• Campbell , Karlyn Kohrs . 1989 . Man Cannot Speak For Her. Volume 1: A Critical Study of Early Feminist Rhetoric , Contributions in Women's Studies 101 Volume 1 , New York : Greenwood .
   Google Scholar
• Cartwright , Samuel . “The Education, Labor, and Wealth of the South” . Elliott , 879 – 96 .
   Google Scholar
• Condit , Celeste Michelle and Lucaites , John Louis . 1993 . Crafting Equality: America's Anglo‐African Word , Chicago : U of Chicago P .
   Google Scholar
• Watkins , William . 1831 . Letter . Genius of Universal Emancipation , July : 46 – 47 . A Colored Baltimorean
   Google Scholar
• Dick , Robert C. 1974 . “Black Protest: Issues and Tactics” . In Contributions in American Studies , Vol. 14 , Westport : Greenwood .
   Google Scholar
• Douglass , Frederick . 1982 . “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 5 July 1852” . In The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews , Edited by: Blassingame , John W. Vol. 2 , 359 – 88 . New Haven : Yale UP . 5 vols. 1979–92.
   Google Scholar
• _____ . 1994 . “ My Bondage and My Freedom. 1855 ” . In Autobiographies , Edited by: Gates , Henry Louis Jr. 103 – 452 . New York : Library of America .
   Google Scholar
• Dumond , Dwight Lowell . 1961 . Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America , Ann Arbor : U of Michigan P .
   Google Scholar
• Elliott , E. N. 1860 . Cotton is King, and Pro‐Slavery Arguments: Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartwright, on This Important Subject Augusta
   Google Scholar
• G. 1832 . “How Ought Woman to Be Educated?” . Ladies’ Magazine and Literary Gazette , 5 : 508 – 15 .
   Google Scholar
• Garnet , Henry Highland . 1991 . “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” Buffalo, 16 August 1843 ” . In The Black Abolitionist Papers , Edited by: Ripley , C. Peter . Vol 3 , 403 – 12 . Chapel Hill : U of North Carolina P . 5 vols. 1985–92
   Google Scholar
• Gates , Henry Louis Jr. 1987 . Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the “Racial” Self , New York : Oxford UP .
   Google Scholar
• _____ . 1988 . The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro‐American Literary Criticism , New York : Oxford UP .
   Google Scholar
• Grimké , Archibald . 1925 . “The Shame of America, Or the Negro's Case Against the Republic” . In Negro Orators and Their Orations , Edited by: Woodson , Carter G. 671 – 89 . Washington : Associated Publishers .
   Google Scholar
• Howard‐Pitney , David . 1990 . The Afro‐American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America , Philadelphia : Temple UP .
   Google Scholar
• Jacobs , Donald M. 1993 . “David Walker and William Lloyd Garrison: Racial Cooperation and the Shaping of Boston Abolition” . In Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston , Edited by: Jacobs . 1 – 20 . Bloomington : Indiana UP .
   Google Scholar
• Jasinski , James . 1997 . “Rearticulating History in Epideictic Discourse: Frederick Douglass's ‘The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro.’” . In Rhetoric and Political Culture in Nineteenth‐Century America , Edited by: Benson , Thomas W. 71 – 89 . East Lansing : Michigan State UP .
   Google Scholar
• Kraditor , Aileen S. 1989 . Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834–50 , Chicago : Ivan R. Dee . 1969.
   Google Scholar
• Lucaites , John Louis . 1997 . “The Irony of ‘Equality’ in Black Abolitionist Discourse: The Case of Frederick Douglass's ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?'” . In Rhetoric and Political Culture in Nineteenth‐Century America , Edited by: Benson , Thomas W. 47 – 69 . East Lansing : Michigan State UP .
   Google Scholar
• Malcolm X . 1965 . Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements , Edited by: Breitman , George . New York : Merit .
   Google Scholar
• McDorman , Todd F. 1997 . “Challenging Constitutional Authority: African American Responses to Scott v. Sandford” . Quarterly Journal of Speech , 83 : 192 – 209 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mitchell‐Keman , Claudia . 1973 . “Signifying” . In Mother Wit From the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro‐American Folklore , Edited by: Dundes , Alan . 310 – 28 . Englewood Cliffs : Prentice .
   Google Scholar
• Moses , Wilson Jeremiah . 1982 . Black Messiahs and Uncle Toms: Social and Literary Manifestations of a Religious Myth , University Park : Pennsylvania State UP .
   Google Scholar
• 1857 . “New York City Anti‐Slavery Society. Fourth Anniversary” . National Anti‐Slavery Standard , 23 May : 3
   Google Scholar
• Pease , Jane H. and Pease , William H. 1974 . They Who Would Be Free: Blacks’ Search for Freedom, 1830–1861 , New York : Atheneum .
   Google Scholar
• Perelman , Chaim and Olbrechts‐Tyteca , Lucy . 1969 . The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation , Edited by: Wilkinson , John and Weaver , Purcell . Notre Dame : U of Notre Dame P .
   Google Scholar
• Perry , Lewis . 1973 . Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought , Ithaca : Cornell UP .
   Google Scholar
• Quarles , Benjamin . 1969 . Black Abolitionists , New York : Oxford UP .
   Google Scholar
• Remond , Charles Lenox . 1991 . “Speech by Charles Lenox Remond, Delivered at Marlboro Chapel, Boston, Massachusetts, 29 May 1844” . In The Black Abolitionist Papers , Edited by: Ripley , C. Peter . Vol 3 , 442 – 45 . Chapel Hill : U of North Carolina P . 5 vols. 1985–92
   Google Scholar
• Ripley , C. Peter . 1993 . “Introduction” . In Witness For Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emancipation , Edited by: Ripley . 1 – 28 . Chapel Hill : U of North Carolina P .
   Google Scholar
• Smith‐Rosenberg , Carroll . 1985 . Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America , New York : Knopf .
   Google Scholar
• Stewart , Maria W. 1987 . “ Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall, Boston, September 21, 1832 ” . In Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches , Edited by: Richardson , Marilyn . 45 – 49 . Bloomington : Indiana UP .
   Google Scholar
• _____ . 1831 . Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build Boston
   Google Scholar
• Richardson , Marilyn , ed. 1987 . Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches , 28 – 42 . Bloomington : Indiana UP .
   Google Scholar
• Tyler , John . 1855 . “ Comments on the Missouri Bill, 17 Feb. 1820. Annals of Congress ” . 1382 – 94 . Washington U.S. 16th Cong., 1st. sess.
   Google Scholar
• W. and Watkins , William J. 1854 . “Who Are the Murderers?” . Frederick Douglass’ Paper , 2 June : 1
   Google Scholar
• Walker , David . 1965 . David Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, But in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America. , 3rd ed. , Edited by: Wiltse , Charles M. New York : Hill and Wang . 1830.
   Google Scholar
• Welter , Barbara . 1976 . Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century , Athens : Ohio UP .
   Google Scholar
• Whipper , William . 1828 . “ An Address Delivered in Wesley Church, on the Evening of June 12, Before the Colored Reading Society of Philadelphia, for Mental Improvement ” . Philadelphia
   Google Scholar
• Porter , Dorothy , ed. 1971 . in Early Negro Writing 1760–1837 , 105 – 19 . Boston : Beacon .
   Google Scholar
• Wills , Garry . 1978 . Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence , New York : Doubleday .
   Google Scholar
• _____ . 1992 . Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America , New York : Simon .
   Google Scholar
• Woodward , Gary . 1990 . Persuasive Encounters: Case Studies in Constructive Confrontation , New York : Praeger .
   Google Scholar