Katherine Alexander

Professor Susan Romano

19^th Century Rhetoric

March 31, 2009

The Origins of Training for the African American Woman Rhetor

from 1835-1850

Emphasis: Maria Stewart

Preliminary Bibliography

The purpose of my project is to look at the possible sources of training for a woman rhetor such as Maria Stewart during the pre-civil war period from about 1835 to approximately 1850. In this endeavor, I have begun studying archival information found in online records at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the earliest institutions of higher learning in the United States to accept African American students, both men and women. Exploration of other societies such as the one headquartered in Philadephia will also be conducted. Presbyterian and Methodist church societies will also provide a focus for my research. The concept of New Historicism will come into play in this project because in many cases histories will need to be established from piecing together fragments of information from various sources. By studying the cultural situations surrounding the development of this early rhetorical tradition among African American women, I believe I can come to some firm conclusions regarding origins of their work. My hypothesis at this point is that churches and African American religious ritual transmitted from the earliest days of slavery helped to launch the African American rhetor into the public forum beginning in the early 19^th century. The focus of this research will be narrowed to the life and times of Maria Stewart and her own writings. I would like to construct how she, specifically, and other African American women of her time, generally, accessed education, skill, and practice as rhetoricians.

The next step is then to look at the “racial” educational divide between the African American woman rhetor and the white woman rhetor as far as environmental influences, attire, manners, access to information, and so on. Initially this will be a broad topic. However, I will narrow it considerably as I find information.

Primary Research

Periodicals: The Colored American

The Liberator

Letters and Writings of Maria Stewart

Presbyterian and Methodist Church Records

Music produced during the time period and “the Blues” in general

Classroom Work on Johnson, Campbell, and Blair

Summaries and 1836-1840 classroom assignments prepared for class. This part of the work is finished. Whately will be brought in as applicable her along with the work of Connors.

Secondary Research

Bacon, Jacqueline. The Humblest May Stand Forth—Rhetoric, Empowerment, and Abolition.

Columbia, SC: U of South Carolina P, 2002.

This volume provides archival material regarding the contributions of African American men and African American and white women as they struggled to enter the world of rhetoric in the 19^th century.

Bacon, Jacqueline, and Glen McClish. "Reinventing the Master's Tools: Nineteenth-Century

African-American Literary Societies of Philadelphia and Rhetorical Education." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 30.4 (Fall 2000): 19-48.

This article provides background on the training that young African American ladies might have received in the field of rhetoric.

Boan, Devon. “Call-and-Response: Parallel ‘Slave Narrative’ in August Wilson’s The Piano

Lesson.” African American Review 32:2 (Summer, 1998), 232-291.

This article provides insights into the ritual that might have helped to train early African American Rhetors.

Bobbit, Mary Reed. “A Bibliography of Etiquette Books Published in America before 1900.”

Bulletin of the New York Library, 1947.

This pubication might be useful in determining a divide between African American and White Women and perhaps establish boundaries regarding how etiquette of the time allows any public discourse.

Coleman, Wendy Renee. “The Dramaturgy of Spirit: AfriChristian Spirituality in the Plays of

August Wilson.” Dissertation Abstracts International 62:5 (2001), 1640.

It will be difficult to get a copy of this dissertation. However, the abstract may be helpful as I look in depth at African American Religious Ritual.

Davis, Gerald L. I Got the Word in Me and I can Sing it, you Know: Study of the Performed

African-American Sermon. U of Penn Press, 1986.

This publication provides background regarding the origins, style, and content of African American ritual and could offer information as to the training the church offered to rhetors.

Hill, Anthony D. Hill. “The Pulpit and Grease Paint: The Influence of Black Church Ritual on

Black Theatre. Black American Literature Forum 25:1 (Spring, 1991), 113-120.

This article offers further interpretation of the work of Gerald L. Davis.

Johnson, Nan. Gender and Rhetorical Space in American Life, 1866-1910. Carbondale, U of

Southern Illinois P., 2002.

This volume should be helpful in looking at the “divide” between African American woman and white women in terms of influences on their entry into the public forum.

Muzaffar, Hanan. “August Wilson Reconstructs Black History: The Counternarratives of

History in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Piano Lesson. Griot: Official Journal of the Southern Conference on Afro-American Studies, Inc. 23:1 (Spring, 2004), 73-80.

This article provides evidence for the role of drama in transmitting black history. In this case, ritual comes into the picture.

Oberlin College Archives.

The documentation on this site is well organized and extensive with many online references to assist in pre-civil war research. Further, Oberlin was one of the early seminary/colleges to which African American students, both men and women, were admitted and from which they graduated. Applicable citations will follow.

Royster, Jacqueline. Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women. Pittsburgh, PA: U of Pittsburgh P, 2000.

This article provides an historiographical approach to the lives and background of major African American women rhetors. It will be useful in my exploration of the life and work of Maria Stewart.

_______________. “Sarah’s Story: Making a Place for Historical Ethnography in Rhetorical

Studies.” In Rhetoric, the Polis, and the Global Village: Proceedings from the 1998 Rheoric Society of Ameirca Conference. Ed. C Jan Swearingen and Dave Pruett, Mahwah: Lawrence Eribaum Associates, 39-51.

Shannon, Sandra. “ ‘Ain’t I a Woman’? Sojourner Truth’s Question Revisited in August

Wilson’s Female Characters.” MAWA Review 14:1 (June, 1999), 1-8.

This article provides a link between Sojourner Truth’s rhetorical origins and August Wilson’s characters. It should be helpful in terms of a “new historicism” theoretical analsysis.

Wilson, August. The Piano Lesson. Penguin, 1990.

This Pulitzer Prize winner makes use of the oral tradition and the transmission of that tradition through the shamanistic ritual and the blues. It will be useful in determining influences on the African American rhetor, and the African woman rhetor as well.

_____________. Gem of the Ocean. New York: NY: Theatre Communications Group, 2006.

This play offers further insights it into the oral transmission or African American ritual.