Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper’s purpose is to build upon and advance the discussion of non-profit public relations especially that associated with activism. It examined the strategic positioning and messaging of one event during the 19th Century anti-slavery movement in the United States. The various elements of that movement challenged the status quo position on slavery and racial discrimination. It included events such as Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Oration. It was one of many instances that anti-slavery communicators worked with to create strain by pointing to a legitimacy gap between hallowed values and the application of those values to the lives and conditions of people living and working in the United States.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper is an analysis of Abraham Lincoln's and Frederick Douglass' contrasting approaches to "Civic theology",as exemplifed by Lincoln's youthful "Perpetuation Speech" ( 1837),and Douglass' "What is the Fourth of July to a Slave?"(1854). I argue that Lincoln's speech exemplifies an " theology of order", which is deeply conservative. In contrast, Douglass' speech exemplifies a "theology of Liberation" which is profoundly radical. I conclude my paper by arguing that Lincoln the president transcended the dichotmy between the theology of Order and the theology of liberation in The Second Inaugural. I also argue that Lincoln's cvic theology,at its highest, exemplified the "Augustinian Liberalism" defended by Paul Weithman and others.

Publication Type: Individual Presentation
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Nineteenth century America represented a young nation struggling with a “social” problem heavily grounded in race. By mid-century, these “United” states are divided into warring entities slightly held together by an economic and international need for one another. Yet, this warring time captured America’s historical and contemporary preoccupation – freedom. Writers of the time studied/felt this American dilemma, and scripted the internal conflict of a nation coming to terms with a history of injustices and crimes against humanity. Two writers in particular, understood America’s trek towards freedom and despite writing from two distinct racial groups, two different literary genres and two distinguished time periods, are subtextually linked in their treatment of freedom. One of these writers, James Fennimore Cooper, is noted as being one of America’s first novelists, and his historical novel The Last of the Mohicans narrates a powerful wrestling with the concept of freedom. The other writer, Frederick Douglass, is known for being the autodidactic ex-slave whose acquisition of literacy fueled his individual migration to be free, while his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave became a literary icon in American literature. A discussion of these two members of the American literati needs explanation, as their differences are too large to ignore. Cooper a white writer from the north writes historical fiction in 1826, whereas his contrast, Douglass a “Negro” ex-slave from the south writes in the genre of “narrative” in 1845. However, the racial, geographic and temporal distinctions of these men are not enough to disconnect how they similarly chronicle the individual’s departure from slavery. Their works both highlight how when a “man” leaves the structure or institution of slavery (that is to say, leaves “his” place of origin), “he” inevitably encounters a profound moment of loneliness where he can no longer claim the kinsmen he left behind. In an ironic paralleling of Cooper’s “Hawkeye” and Douglass’ “Self”, I argue that Cooper and Douglass record the loneliness that plagues one as “he” ascends from slavery. More importantly, juxtaposing how both writers treat this emotional moment of freedom, rewrites and revisions how America understands freedom. “Where Are My Kinsmen?: The Trope of Loneliness in Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans and Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave offers a new way of understanding race, freedom and the nature of emotion in an America consistently at war with itself.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: Hailed in abolitionist circles as "the most thrilling work which the American press ever issued – and the most important," Douglass's autobiographies sparked cries of falsehood from southern readers, and skepticism from the mainstream northern press. Reader responses to these publications provide insight in the sectional tensions growing in the late antebellum United States.
During his twenty years in bondage, Frederick Douglass experienced slavery on an Eastern Shore plantation and in the ship-building city of Baltimore. He passed from slaveholder to slaveholder, was hired out to a notorious "Negro breaker,"and subsequently allowed to hire his own time. In short, Frederick Douglass's story of slavery is filled with drama and heartbreak, but also with pride and hope, culminating in his bold escape in September 1838. It was a story begging to be told.
Once safely out of the South, Douglass gained the patronage of prominent abolitionists and in 1845 published the first of his three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Written by Himself. Ten years later he followed with a new and expanded narrative titled, My Bondage and My Freedom, in which he related his activities as an antislavery activist as well as his life in slavery. Read widely across the United States, and in Europe, both volumes received the attention of sympathizers, literary critics, and sectional advocates. Examining the reader responses to these important autobiographies sheds additional light on the divisions growing within American society in the decades leading up to the Civil War.