Humanity, Liberty, and Community: Themes in African American Rhetoric from 1768-1861

by Mary Green

Throughout the assigned readings in Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology, the rhetoric of African American speakers has functioned as a powerful tool to speak out against the injustices of American slavery and to further the cause of Abolitionism. As a response to oppression and marginalization, the rhetoric of African Americans in antebellum America maintains consistent themes that seek to assert the humanity of the African/African American slave, call forth the principles of American democracy and freedom, and reiterate the significance of community amongst African Americans as they fight for freedom and citizenship.

            A significant theme prevalent in African American rhetoric during antebellum America is the humanity of the African and/or African American slave. Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino, or Gustavus Vasa, the African, Written by Himself recounts African life before slavery and the subsequent horrors of slave life, detailing the gruesome experience of being a human commodity in the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano details his life before his kidnapping and stresses every aspect of African life and culture in order to challenge the image of the “savage African.” With such detailed recollections, his text asserts the civility and humanity of the African: “We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Thus every great event such as triumphant return from battle or other cause of public rejoicing is celebrated in public dancers, which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion” (11). He continues with vivid descriptions of the clothing and methods of cooking in his tribe and provides details of the ways in which they lived to counter the argument of African inferiority and savagery.

            In her speech “What If I Am a Woman?” Maria Stewart also emphasizes the humanity and noble achievements of the African: “History informs us that we sprung from one of the most learned nations of the whole earth—from the seat, if not the parent of science; yes, poor, despised Africa was once the resort of sages and legislators of other nations, was esteemed the school for learning, and the most illustrious men in Greece flocked thither for instruction” (42). Like Equiano, Stewart is refuting the myth of the “savage African” by calling upon the intellectual achievements of Africa and its consequential contributions to Western society. Declaring the African American’s humanity, speakers and texts juxtapose their humanity with the inhumanity and barbarity of white Westerners. In his speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass affirms that the hypocrisy and cruelty of white America “would disgrace a nation of savages” (86). David Walker’s “Appeal” notes the uniqueness of American slavery for its unprecedented methods of cruelty and warns of divine punishment for crimes afflicted upon African Americans at the hands of barbaric white slaveholders.

            Another theme present in African American rhetoric is American freedom and democratic ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Many speakers use the rhetoric within those documents to highlight the hypocrisy and injustice of American slavery within the context of a “free” and “democratic” society.  In his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass asks, “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (85). By presenting his speech on the Fourth of July, a national holiday marking the anniversary of from Great Britain, Douglass shows the paradoxical act of celebrating independence in a society structured around African enslavement. In his speech “Let Your Motto Be Resistance!”  H.H. Garnett uses the very language of the American Revolution to denounce American slavery, and parallels the convictions of American revolutionaries with the convictions of slaves and African Americans: “Where they ignorant of the principles of Liberty? Certainly they were not. The sentiments of their revolutionary orators fell in burning eloquence upon their hearts, and with one voice they cried, LIBERTY OR DEATH” (58). Garnett uses the American Revolutionary’s rhetoric to further acknowledge the similarities between the fight for freedom from England and the fight for freedom from American enslavement. 

            Finally, African American rhetoric consistently acknowledges the need for solidarity amongst all African Americans and expresses the importance of community. Their sense of community became a necessary element of their struggle as they resisted slavery, racism, and marginalization.  Maria Stewert pronounced African rights as an issue for all African Americans, slave and non-slave alike, declaring: “African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest” (41). In his sermon “Thus Doth Ethiopia Stretch Forth Her Hand from Slavery, to Freedom and Equality” Prince Hall not only encourages African Americans to empathize with the shared experiences and conditions of other African Americans, he proclaims that it is their moral obligation to do so: “I shall now attempt to show you that it is our duty to sympathize with our fellow men under their troubles” (19). Using similar rhetoric, H. H. Garnett also stresses African American solidarity: “While you have been oppressed, we have also been partakers with you; nor can we be free while you are enslaved. We, therefore, write to you as being bound with you” (57). Thus, it is essential that their rhetoric reflects the shared experiences of oppression because their sense of community does not simply function as a network of support; it establishes a unified, empowered voice in denouncing American slavery and racism.

Work Cited

Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. Ed. Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American     Anthology. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefied Publishers, Inc., 2009.