Project Two Guidelines
Your goal in this project is (once again) to interpret a text:
- by analyzing it as a piece of "rhetoric" that was designed to communicate a particular set of ideas to a particular audience using particular kinds of arguments and appeals,
- and by analyzing how we might better understand this piece of rhetoric if we place it within the context of the culture in which it was produced.
Because oratory played such a central role in 19th century American life, we will concentrate in this project on analyzing speeches. In addition, the fact that speeches are usually designed to be delivered to a particular group of people on a particular occasion in a particular place for a particular purpose should help us remember that we are thinking about rhetoric.
As you work to analyze the kinds of arguments and appeals that are being made, and to set those arguments and appeals in the context of nineteenth century American culture, you should consult the material already available on the issues surrounding Public Speaking in an Unspoken Age on the E Pluribus Unum web site. You will also be provided with additional material on nineteenth century oratory in the coming weeks.
Finally, the resources you will work with in this project have been organized in a way intended to help you meet the challenge of placing texts in context. Each assignment option listed below includes one speech that can serve as the basis for your interpretation, a set of supplementary sources that will aid you in placing the text in context, and a question designed to help you think about how to connect the text and the context. You should also continue to exploit the resources available on our syllabus and particularly on the Lyceum Search Page. (The materials provided below are only intended to serve as a jumping-off point for your investigation.)
What you will find below is a menu of topics for your consideration. If you would like to choose a different speech or different topic for your project, please consult with me so that we can make sure that you have the resources you need to be successful in your reading, researching, and writing.
OPTION ONE
Speech:
Proposed Focus:
Use the contextual resources to determine the arguments and emotions that were touched off by John Brown. Henry David Thoreau took one approach to dealing with these arguments and issues in his "Plea for Captain John Brown." Like Thoreau, Douglass supported the cause for which John Brown gave his life and thus wants to offer up some words in his honor. But Douglass also had reservations about Brown's methods. Work to construct your own understanding of the 19th century American response to Brown, and then draw upon your understanding of this context to develop your own analysis of Douglass's speech: it's purpose, audience, arguments, and appeals.
Resources:
Speeches and Other Commentaries Prompted by John Brown's Actions, Prosecution, and Death at the E Pluribus Unum Site. (Note: If you want to build an understanding of the occasion and audience, be sure to do some research into Storer College. You can start by following the links from my page at E Pluribus Unum.)
OPTION TWO
Speech:
One or more of the following speeches by Frederick Douglass: "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"; "We Have Decided to Stay" delivered to the American Anti-Slavery Society, New York, 9 May 1848; and A Plea For Free Speech in Boston, 1860.
Proposed Focus:
Abolitionist lecturers often used patriotic appeals to suggest that slavery was "unamerican," although they did not use that term. What kinds of appeals to national pride and national values does Douglass use in his speeches against slavery, what does he do to ensure the effectiveness of those appeals, and what else does he use to supplement those appeals? As you develop your interpretation, be sure to pay close attention to the way Douglass uses his opening and closing to negotiate a particular kind of relationshiip with his audience: what kind of response do you think he would have provoked, and why?
As an alternative, you can compare Douglass's fourth of July speech with "Slavery in Massachussetts," delivered by Thoreau on July 4, 1854, in Framingham, . (For more information on this subject, see the Note on Lecture 43 at the Thoreau Institute site. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the fourth of July was being used extensively by abolitionists to raise the question of slavery; think about how these two men exploit the meanings of Independence Day for this purpose.
Resources:
"Rhetoric of Freedom: Lincoln, Emerson, Douglass," a commentary on how each of the three men argued against slavery; includes links to full texts of speeches and essays.
Speeches by Douglass at the Library of Congress
If you are focusing on the question of patriotism and remembering the revolution, you might want to investigate how other people celebratedIndependence Day in the nineteenth century? What kinds of speeches were normally given? For information on this subject, see:
Fourth of July Orations: An Exhibit at the New York State Library
The Fourth of July Celebrations Database at the National Archives
What We Did on the Fourth of July--Reminiscences from the Jacksonian Era
Account of the First Fourth of July After the Revolution published in The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans by William Cooper Nell with an introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
You might also want to work with the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History to the Present Time. Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., 1881. As is typical of 19th century autobiographies and biographies, this text includes selections from Douglass's speeches, letters, and reviews. You might find additional resources by using the links to related texts provided on the opening page. You could also use a key word search of this text to find passages in which Douglass talks about speeches, addresses, lectures, and oratory. By reviewing those passages, you should be able to develop some understanding of Douglass's thoughts about his career as an orator that you could use as building blocks in constructing your interpretation of one of his speeches.
OPTION THREE
Speech:
Proposed Focus:
Most of the people who spoke on behalf of reform movements in 19th century America attempted to establish their credibility by appearing to be as educated, cultivated, and Christian as possible. One reason that Frederick Douglass was so adopted so quickly as a star of the abolitionist movement was because of his refined speech and royal bearing. Sojourner Truth, however, made an entirely different impression on her audiences because of her heavy southern dialect, seemingly-folksy speaking style, and down to earth manner. While white abolitionists made the most of Frederick Douglass by using him as a kind of "demonstration" that former slaves could function as citizens, Sojourner Truth was depicted in very different terms by white reformers such as Frances Dana Gage and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Yet, neither Douglass nor Truth were the mere products of their "handlers." By studying both the speeches delivered by Sojourner Truth and the essays written by others about her, what can you learn about Truth's methods of connecting with her audience, and using arguments and appeals to persuade them to accept her position? And how is this like or unlike the way others tried to use Truth herself as a kind of argument on behalf of abolitionism?
Resources:
To read three different versions of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech along with her other speeches, see The Words Of Truth Edited by Mary G. Butler, which is part of The Sojourner Truth Institute website. This should serve as an excellent starting point for your research.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Sojourner Truth: The Lybian Sibyl
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, an 1850 biography written by Olive Gilbert, based on information provided by Sojourner Truth.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth; a bonds-woman of olden time, emancipated by the New York Legislature in the early part of the present century; with a history of her labors and correspondence drawn from her "Book of life," an 1876 version of the narrative available as text or digitized image of the pages at the American Memory site. It is important to note that like a great many other 19th century biographies, this includes transcriptions of the writing, speeches, and correspondence of the subject as well as printed reviews of her work.
OPTION FOUR
Speech:
Abraham Lincoln's "Second Innaugural Address" or his "House Divided" speech.
Proposed Focus:
Lincoln faced a very specific set of challenges when planning and delivering his speeches. In his early days in politics, he needed to court the votes of people on both sides of the slavery question, and he also hoped to keep the divide between the two sides from splitting the nation. During the war, he needed to find ways to keep his audience firmly behind the northern cause while trying to pave the way for a peaceful reunion with the south after the war. Thus, he needed to be--and was--a very careful student of rhetoric. Examine one or more of Lincoln's speeches and consider the methods he uses to gain the interest and support of his audience, respond to their arguments and assumptions, and win them over to his own way of thinking.
Resources:
"Rhetoric of Freedom: Lincoln, Emerson, Douglass," a commentary on how each of the three men argued against slavery; includes links to full texts of speeches and essays.
Jim Zwick's page on "A House Divided," which includes links to the First and Second Innaugurals as well as the "Gettysburg Address" and a selected bibliography of Lincoln resources.
At Bartleby.Com you will find a useful list of speeches by, and essays about, Lincoln, including the Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
You can also find supplementary resources at Abraham Lincoln Online and Abraham Lincoln/Net, and there are many Lincoln texts available through the American Memory archives.
Finally, be sure to consult Gary Wills' excellent analysis of Lincoln's oratory, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America.(available at the Assumption Library. If you check it out, be sure to make arrangements to share it with other members of the class who are working on the same topic. If you do a simple subject search, you will find that the D'Alzon library has 40 books on Lincoln.)
OPTION FIVE
Speech:
Proposed Focus:
Angelina Grimke Weld was one of the first women in America to dare to present herself as a speaker before a public audience and shocked audiences often responded with catcalls, physical threats, or by walking out. Because she was speaking out on behalf of the abolition movement, she also had to contend with the threat of violence from those who supported slavery and feared that abolitionists would disrupt the national economy, depose states' rights, and divide the nation. In fact, as she was giving her speech at Pennsylvania Hall, a mob was gathering outside, and the crowd eventually began a riot that led to the burning of the building. How did Grimke deal with the fact that she was a woman, a southern woman, speaking out against slavery? What assumptions and arguments did she need to overcome in order to win over her audiences, and how did she go about doing that? Or should we assume that her role was to reinforce the beliefs of those who already agreed with her? Or is there a difference between the speeches she gives to the already-converted and the texts she produces for a more general audience (as in the case of her letters debating against Catherine Beecher, a proponent of more modest approaches to seeking reform)? By reading the texts produced by Grimke and her opponents, she what you can figure out about Grimke's use of rhetoric.
Alternative option: construct a project in which you analyze "Reform Rhetoric and Riots." How did abolitionist speakers deal with situations in which they were threatened by mob violence? After reviewing several speeches given under such circumstances, see if you can analyze how the speaker dealt with the threat in his or her speech. Did the speaker's response to the threat make the speech more or less effective, in your estimation, and why? In addition to looking at several of these speeches, you may also want to investigate the circumstances surrounding the event, the nature of the audience and the make-up of the mob, and the response provoked by the violence. For example, were there commentaries in sermons, newspapers, or speeches regarding the violence, and how did the "rhetoric" of the response fit into the larger debate over aboltion? Be sure to take a look at the discussion of this subject on my page on the E Pluribus Unum site entitled, Ultraists vs. Nothingarians: The 19th Century Debate over the Rhetoric of Social Reform. For a brief comment on this subject, you can read the materials on Abolition which are part of a very useful and interesting site, The African-American Mosaic A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture.
Resources:
Speech: Angelina Grimke:"An Appeal to Christian Women of the South" Address in Response to the Pastoral Letter; (also read the Pastoral Letter which provoked the controversy); and the Grimke-Beecher Exchange.
Resources related to the Washington Hall incident courtesy of "Africans in America: People & Events, Pennsylvania Hall, 1838."
OPTION SIX
Speech:
Abbey Kelley Foster's Speech to the 1851 Worcester Women's Rights Convention or any other 19th century women's rights speech by the man or woman of your choice. (For example, see Theodore Parker's A sermon: of the public function of woman, preached at the Music hall, March 27, 1853.
Proposed Focus:
How did the proponents of the women's movement in 19th century America draw upon the language and appeals of the founders, as well as the language and appeals used in other 19th century reform movements? What explicit connections to suffragettes make to the founders, to slavery, and/or to temperance reform?
Alternative: What arguments and assumptions about the nature of the "woman's sphere" did the advocates of women's right need to overcome in their work, and how did they respond to these arguments and assumptions in their speeches?
Resources:
"What Did Abbey Say?," a commentary on the variety of responses provoked by Abbey Kelley Foster's speech.
Worcester Women's History Project: Historical Documents; see also the Links to Other Web Resources at the WWHP site.
The Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
Excerpts from "The First and Closing Paragraphs of Mrs. Stanton's Address, Delivered at Seneca Falls, NY, July 19, 20, 1848:" Proceedings of the Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York, 1848 (New York: Seneca County Courier, 14 July 1848), p. 5 (Gerritsen Collection of Women's History, microfiche 683, no. 3163). For a rich trove of related resources, see Why Did Some Men Support the Women's Rights Movement in the 1850s, and How Did Their Ideas Compare to those of Women in the Movement?, part of the remarkable site entitled Women and Social Movements in America, 1820-1940.