Freedom and equality: Rhetoric in the pre-Civil War period - Essay Example

? Freedom and equality: Rhetoric in the pre-Civil War period 16 August In the new nation, different groups existed together, but not without acceptance of each other’s physical and ideological differences. The Declaration of Independence of the United States Government in July 4, 1776 set the religious precedent of equality, where it recognizes and defends the belief that God created people, who are equal to one another. The Founding Fathers formed the American Constitution in 1787 to unite the states further and to reinforce the underlying commitment of the states to equality. Reality, on the contrary, showed severe factions in interpreting the meaning of equality for the minorities. During the 1800s, the minority groups experienced extreme discrimination and isolation. They were treated as the “other,” who must be controlled and oppressed through land displacement in the case of the Native Americans, slavery for the blacks, and gender inequity for women. Several writers, however, supported the abolitionist movement and the greater rights of women and Native Americans. These authors used the rhetoric of the Founding Fathers to emphasize equality of all genders and races, and they changed this rhetoric through maximizing the strategies of sarcasm and irony and expanding the free style verse, as they seek to assert true equality and freedom for all. Several writers expressed indignation for the view and treatment of Native Americans, because they go against the fundamental religious belief that God created everyone as equal, and so plays, essays, and fiction served to stress this promise of liberty and happiness for all. The Declaration of Independence says: “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” (United States Government, 1776). The coming of the Westerners in the land of the Native Americans, however, contested this monumental document. As the United States expanded, it forced native tribes to leave their productive lands. In 1823, the Supreme Court ruled the American “right of discovery” as greater than any Native American “right of occupancy” (Week Five Content Outline). In 1830, the government ratified the Indian Removal Act, and a year after that, through the historic Trail of Tears, thousands of Native Americans were forced to march westwards. This treatment of the original owners of America is borne from intense racial discrimination and Eurocentricism, as well as the desire to assimilate the natives and other minorities. Several authors wrote newspapers, fiction, and plays to support the view that the Native Americans are human beings too, who deserve respect and civil rights. Cherokee Phoenix is the first Native American newspaper that was established in 1828. It served to document and to fight for the interests of the natives. Lydia Marie Child's novel Hobomok (1824) is a romance novel that has an element of interracial marriage between the white woman Mary and the Indian Hobomok. Despite showing that Hobomok had good traits as a person and as a husband, Child still supported the Noble Savage Myth. In this novel, Mary continues to believe that Hobomok is beneath her and her husband: Kind as Hobomok was, and rich as she found his uncultivated mind in native imagination, still the contrast between him and her departed lover would often be remembered with sufficient bitterness. Besides this, she knew that her own nation looked upon her as lost and degraded; and, what was far worse, her own heart echoed back the charge. (Child, 1824). Child illustrates the goodness of the Native Americans, which is enough for them to be treated with kindness and respect. She has reservations about full racial equality, but she depicts Native Americans as human beings too. Another piece of literature shows the negative impacts of the settlers on the lives of the natives, which are the latter’s extermination and displacement. Through a play, John Augustus Stone's Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags, Native Americans are depicted as rightful owners of their land. They trusted the Puritan settlers, who proved to be the opposite of Christian decency, when it comes to treating the natives. In this tragedy, Metamora dies with his family. In his final breath, he curses the white Christians, who killed his clan. These examples of literature asserted that the Native Americans are human beings too. However, because they look and live differently, the whites eradicated them, while those who survived lived a much inferior life than before the settlers came to their lands. Plays, fiction, poetry, and slave narratives echo the sentiment of the displaced Native Americans, where they expressed the wide gap between the intention of the Founding Fathers and the experiences of African Americans. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to the public in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Through this speech, Lincoln commemorates the sacrifices of those who died to protect the Union. He reminded the public why the war had to be fought and how the Union won the Civil War. He stressed that the war is not about suppressing the Confederacy rebellion only: “…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” The Civil War aims to ensure the promotion and defense of equality and freedom for all. Poets during this time introduced free styles form of writing to enhance the freedom of writing and the parallel with human freedoms. Walt Whitman (1855) wrote the “Leaves of Grass” to portray a lawn that signifies the summation of the individual blades of each grass in it. He said: “I go with the slaves of the earth equally with the masters/And I will stand between/ the masters and the slaves,/ Entering into both/ so that both will understand/ me alike.” These lines stress that both masters and slaves are alike as humans, and so they should be equal. Whitman aims to be a poet with a mission, who will help unite the masters with the slaves, so that they will no longer treat each other with animosity and prejudice. In the “Preface to Leaves of Grass,” Whitman (1855) asserted the equality of the citizens of the U.S.: “…but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures… but always most in the common people.” He is saying that the common people, who include the blacks, are the ones who made and will continuously make America great. He uses irony to support the belief that great nations are built on the backs of simple commoners. Moreover, the nation is a nation of all races: “The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races, of them, a bard is to be commensurate with a people…” (Whitman, 1855). Poets serve to speak to all races, because together, they form and defend a powerful nation. Harriet Beecher Stowe is another supporter of African Americans. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) depicts the inhumanity of slavery that breaks African American families and culture, and essential, a breaker of human dignity. These works undermine slavery and its adverse effects of human civilization. Slave narratives illustrate the ghastly nature and consequences of slavery to slaves and slaveholders. In Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Written by Himself, Frederick Douglass narrates his life as a slave. He shows his ability and perseverance that he used to surmount the challenges of slavery. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs, also known as Linda Brent, tells her story, and the unique difficulties of being a slave and a woman. As a mother and a slave, she faces difficult struggles, so that she can attain her and her children’s freedom. These narratives assert that male and female slaves are dehumanized through slavery, because they have no access to civil rights. Jacobs underlined, nevertheless, that female slaves had experienced exceptional oppression due to their gender. Jacobs noted that: “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own” (Jacobs, 1861, Chapter 5). This is because aside from fearing her master, she feared the wrath of her mistress, who envies and distrusts her. Jacobs loathed the “jealous passion” of her mistress (Jacobs, 1861, Chapter 5). Several slaves told her, “[i]f God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove her greatest curse” (Jacobs, 1861, Chapter 5). Mulattoes are clear products of how female slaves are not only commodified as chattel, but also as sexual properties of their masters. These masters break their own marriage vows, because they firmly believe that they own the body and souls of their female slaves. Hence, slavery is a dehumanizing institution that takes away the humanity of both the slaves and slaveholders. Several works of fiction and non-fiction narratives express full support for women, and female writers often use sarcasm and wit to obtain the fullness of equality for their gender. Margaret Fuller (1845) wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which is a seminal work in American feminism. She used the words of the Founding Fathers to assert what women also equally deserve: Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals, though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping; though the free American so often feels himself free, like the Roman, only to pamper his appetites and his indolence through the misery of his fellow beings, still it is not in vain, that the verbal statement has been made, “All men are born free and equal. (Fuller, 1845). Fuller (1845) is against slavery and gender inequity because both contest the ideals of the Constitution. All men are born to be free and equal, and for her, this includes women and blacks too. Emily Dickinson also showed audacity in her belief that women are equal to men in all respects, especially in intelligence and bravery. In her poem, “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun,” a woman is compared to a gun that goes where its master brings it. The gun is an image of violence and power, but as a woman, she is only a loaded gun who cannot die on her own, because the husband controls her entire life. Fanny Fern used her newspaper articles to express her indignation against a “free” society. In her 1852 article, “Hints to Young Wives,” she used sarcasm and humor to express that women should not accept their husbands’ infidelities. These works argued that women are no less than men, and yet they are treated as properties too. They strove to reassert their humanity and equality with men through their writings. The 1800s showed the dichotomy between people who supported equality and those who believed that civil rights are reserved for the whites only. Several writers supported the abolitionist movement and fought for the greater rights of women and Native Americans. These authors used the rhetoric of the Founding Fathers to accentuate equality of all genders and races, and they changed this rhetoric through maximizing the strategies of sarcasm and irony and expanding the free style verse. Their ultimate goal is to write about equality and freedom using inclusive language and defending the true essence of equality that is based on people’s core of humanity. Their works signified the rise of the minorities and the hope that they would be truly free to be independent and happy individuals in the new world. References Child, L.M. (1824). Hobomok. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. Dickinson, E. (1863). “My life had stood - a loaded gun.” Retrieved from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/gun.html Douglass, F. (1845). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm Fern, F. (1852, February 14). Hints to young wives. Boston Olive Branch. Retrieved from http://www.catskillarchive.com/misc/fannyfern2.htm Fuller, M. (1845). Woman in the nineteenth century. New York: Norton. Jacobs, H. (1861). Incidents in the life of a slave girl. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11030/pg11030.html Lincoln, A. (1863). Gettysburg address. Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/gettyb.asp Stone, J.A. (1829). Metamora; or, The last of the Wampanoags. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Stowe, H.B. (1852). Uncle Tom's cabin. New York: Viking Press. United States Government. (1776). The declaration of independence. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/ Whitman, W. (1855). Leaves of grass. Retrieved from http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/whitman/sleepers/race.html Read More