Metalinguistic Analysis in the Orations on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1808–1823.
This essay returns to an understudied archive within early Black sermonic and oratory culture: a set of commemorations delivered between 1808 and 1823 by abolitionists, clergymen, and other community leaders at Black churches and philanthropic organizations in New York and Philadelphia to remember t...
| Published in: | Early American Literature Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 1 - 37 |
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| Format: | Article |
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University of North Carolina Press
2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=158081668&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 158081668 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00128163 EAE jtl: Early American Literature issn: 00128163 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2022 vid: 57 iid: 2 pid: 2027 pub: University of North Carolina Press artinfo: ui: 158081668 10.1353/eal.2022.0037 ppf: 1 ppct: 36 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 2MB tig: atl: Metalinguistic Analysis in the Orations on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1808–1823. aug: au: Plasencia, Sam affil: Colby College su: Slavery Abolitionists Black people Intellectual history Theology sug: subj: Slavery Abolitionists Black people Intellectual history Theology keyword: African American African American sermon anti-Blackness Black intellectual history Black politics commemorative culture Orations on the Abolition of the Slave Trade respectability politics rhetoric Sylvia Wynter theology uplift ab: This essay returns to an understudied archive within early Black sermonic and oratory culture: a set of commemorations delivered between 1808 and 1823 by abolitionists, clergymen, and other community leaders at Black churches and philanthropic organizations in New York and Philadelphia to remember the United States Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which went into effect on January 1, 1808. I argue that this genre interrogates dominant language and narratorial practices through a form of theoretical investigation called metalinguistic analysis. Metalinguistics is a transdisciplinary branch of linguistics that investigates how language relates to cognition and cultural behaviors. Their metalinguistic analyses expertly elaborate how dominant political, theological, scientific, and economic discourses are operationalized in service of Western greed, theft, plunder, and enslavement. To avoid reproducing these social ills, the January 1 orators suggest emotional sobriety, honesty, humility, temperance in food and drink, industry, a peaceful deportment, and obedience to the laws of God and nation as written. Their prescriptions have been traditionally understood as an early example of uplift discourse, a term that emerged in the late nineteenth century. But I suggest that when read in the context of their metalinguistic analyses, these behaviors are revolutionary practices that resist the avarice, dishonesty, vainglory, gluttony, and lust that initiated and propelled the trade in Black flesh. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Early American Literature is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Early American Literature holder: University of North Carolina Press dt: @attributes: year: 2022 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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