Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America

327 Pages·2013·2.727 MB·English

by  Karen Ann Weyler

Empowering Words
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Empowering Words
Outsiders and Authorship
in Early America
X
karen a. weyler
the university of georgia press Athens and London
© 2013 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www .ugapress. org
All rights reserved
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Th e paper in this book meets the guidelines for
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Printed in the United States of America
13 14 15 16 17 p 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
Weyler, Karen Ann.
Empowering words : outsiders and authorship in early
America / Karen A. Weyler.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8203-4323-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8203-4323-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-8203-4324-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8203-4324-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. American literature—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—
History and criticism. 2. American literature—Revolutionary period,
1775–1783—History and criticism. 3. Outsiders in literature.
4. Authorship—Social aspects—United States. 5. Literacy—
Social aspects—United States. I. Title.
ps185.w46 2013
810.9'001—dc23
2013005553
British Library Cataloging- in-Publication Data available
ISBNfordigitaledition:978-0-8203-4325-9
To Ronald and Shirley Weyler,
who took me to the library every week of my childhood
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
introduction
Outsider Authorship in Early America 1
one
Mourning New England: Phillis Wheatley and the Broadside Elegy 25
two
An “Englishman under English Colours”: Briton Hammon,
John Marrant, and the Fungibility of Christian Faith 76
three
“Common, Plain, Every Day Talk” from “An Uncommon Quarter”:
Samson Occom and the Language of the Execution Sermon 114
four
Becoming “Th e American Heroine”: Deborah Sampson,
Collaboration, and Performance 145
five
“To Proceed with Spirit”: Clementina Rind and the Virginia Gazette 165
six
When Barbers Wrote Books: Mechanic Societies and Authorship 204
conclusion
Uncovering Other Outsider Authors 231
Notes 235
Works Cited 281
Index 301
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Illustrations
Pages from the 1790 Journal and Poems of Margaret Lowther Page 14–17
1771 broadside edition of Wheatley’s To Mrs. Leonard 34
1770 broadside edition of Wheatley’s An Elegiac Poem 48
Title page to pamphlet A Poem, by Phillis 49
Broadside edition of Phillis’s Poem on the Death of Mr. Whitefi eld 54
Cover illustration of Wheatley from Bickerstaff ’s Boston Almanack 64
1816 broadside Dreadful Riot on Negro Hill! 70
1824 broadside Hard Scrabble 73
Title page of A Narrative of . . . Briton Hammon 80
Mezzotint of Th e Reverend Mr. Samson Occom 115
Title page from a 1773 edition of Samson Occom’s A Sermon 138
Frontispiece of the Dedham edition of Th e Female Review 155
Excerpt from Th e Manual Exercise 161
Masthead of the 21 April 1774 Virginia Gazette 190
Masthead of the 8 September 1774 Virginia Gazette 191
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