Paul Formisano Campbell Assignment

Here's my revision of the Campbell assignment addressed to the students:

Audience:
A class of female African American students at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in the 1890s (assuming that female students were receiving an education there during this time).

Assignment #1:

In his The Philosophy of Rhetoric George Campbell writes, “Moral evidence is founded on the principles we have from consciousness and common sense, improved by experience” (43). He further breaks down moral reasoning into the three “tribes” of experience, analogy, and testimony, elements essential to your ability to construct persuasive oratory and writing to plead your case to the nation. Before you try your own hand at such activities, your task in this assignment is to analyze two foundational speeches, one from the abolitionist period and the other from our day. Specifically, you will consider Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech delivered at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio and Ida B. Wells’ “Lynch Law in all its Phases” given in 1893. These are powerful examples of testimony, and according to Campbell, this is one of the most persuasive elements of moral reasoning that can make even the most fantastical experience bear weight.

As you examine these two speeches you should keep the following Cambellian ideas regarding testimony in mind:
• “Testimony is more adequate evidence than any conclusions from experience. The immediate conclusions from experience are general . . . the direct conclusion from testimony is particular.”
•Testimony is “dignified with the name of knowledge, whereas [experience] is regarded as matter of conjecture only.”
•“Testimony is capable of giving us absolute certainty even of the most miraculous fact, or of what is contrary to uniform experience.”
•“Testimony is a serious intimation from another, of any fact or observation, as being what he remembers to have seen or heard or experienced. To this, when we have no positive reasons of mistrust or doubt, we are . . . led to give an unlimited assent.”

Campbell then provides important criteria by which to evaluate the testimony:
•The reputation of the attester
•His manner of address
•The nature of the fact attested
•The occasion of giving the testimony
•The possible or probable design in giving it
•The disposition of the hearers to whom it was given

Your analysis of these speeches should consider how Campbell’s notion of testimony makes these speeches so powerful. Is there any reason, based on the testimonies these women give, that an audience should doubt them? It seems that if the rhetors’ testimonies conform to Campbell’s criteria for testimony, then there is little to deny the truthfulness of their claims. At what points in the speech do these rhetors employ testimony? What is there about the rhetorical situation that makes testimony necessary? How can you play down doubt and mistrust in your audience so that they can only accord you “unlimited assent?” Even when white newspapers challenge Wells’ claims of lynching in the South, does an analysis of her speech according to Campbell’s ideas assert the soundness of her moral reasoning, thereby discrediting her enemies?

Assignment #2:

Now that you have completed an analysis of two influential speeches, it is your turn to draft a speech to be delivered to the Tennessee State Legislature. Having studied Wells’ speech which includes excerpts from Memphis’ The Daily Commercial, which ran inflammatory and mendacious responses to the reports of lynchings throughout the South in the Free Speech, you will prepare comments to urge the state’s representatives that such atrocities are in direct violation of the rights of man and the constitution of this nation. As Campbell instructs us:

in order to persuade, there are two things which must be carefully studied by the orator. The first is, to excite some desire or passion in the hearers; the second is to satisfy their judgment that there is a connexion between the action to which he would persuade them, and the gratification of the desire or passion which he excites. (77-78)

Thus, to persuade your readers, you must adeptly connect passion with reason. For the purposes of this assignment, I am asking you to develop your understanding of the passions.

First, read The Philosophy of Rhetoric pages 77-81. Pay particular attention to how Campbell responds to these questions he poses:
•“How is a passion or disposition that is favorable to the design of the orator, to be excited in the hearers?”
•“How is an unfavorable passion or disposition to be calmed?”

You certainly will be entering unfriendly territory both physically and philosophically with your speech. Therefore, you need to understand how to appeal to such emotions as pride, morality, sense of duty, justice, and pity to make your case. Remember that “A passion is most strongly excited by sensation” (81) so do not hesitate to reinforce the brutality and cruelty of the lynchings.

Once you have some grounding on this principle, you will need to read Campbell’s brief discussion on the “connexion of place” (88). This is one of the elements used to evoke the passions. As you are entering a foreign territory for your speech, you must have an understanding of the events surrounding the lynchings occurring in this area. You will need to read other reports of local violence against your brothers and sisters further north to underscore the barbarity taking place in the midst of a supposed “civilized” state.