Leveraging Literature to Refute Proslavery Science Laura Jones

Story, Statistics and Science: Leveraging Literature to Refute Proslavery Science Laura Jones Presentation at the Faculty Research Colloquium, Montclair State University, October 2014 Good afternoon—thank you for being here. I’m honored, and anxious, to be the first presenter in the resurrected English Department colloquium, and I want to acknowledge Adam’s work in said resurrection. What I thought I’d do today is briefly share some research that’s in its early stages, and then devote our remaining time, which should be ample to your comments and questions. I hope that much of our time today can be spend in robust conversation. The ideas that I’ll present constitute a kind of preliminary framework that I have constructed in response to a few well-know abolitionist texts: William Wells Brown’s novel Clotel, Lydia Maria Child’s Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans called Africans and her short story “The Quadroons,” and finally Frederick Douglass’ well-known Narrative. Much has been said and written about these texts, so I’m treading a well-worn path here. What I hope to add, and build on, is a slightly different lens through which we can consider these texts and their resonance today. I will consider these texts through the particular lens of sanity and insanity. Questions about sanity were prominent in public discourse of the day, as evidenced in part by the1840 census, which for the first time counted the number of “insane” people in the American population. The data from the census prompted, of course, numerous explanations from physicians and aliensts—men pioneering the field that would come to be known as psychology. Their explanations tended to support white supremacist models of human difference, which dovetailed with another contemporary American preoccupation: defining a national identity (Griffin 374; Cushman 40). Questions of national identity and of sanity converged in the discourse of Black insanity, which offered a definition by opposition. It is, after all, often simpler to determine what one is not than to articulate what one is. Enslaved and free people of color, as Toni Morrison has pointed out, were imagined as the antithesis of the idea of the American self in many ways. In the discourse of sanity, they were constructed as the pathological inverse of a healthy America, the polar opposite of what Griffin described as the “cool, prudent, disciplined and deferential” self that was the model of American sanity. This vision of Black insanity fit neatly into proslavery rhetoric, and was widely deployed to that end. Scientific racism like this was, in fact, “virtually uncontested” within the scientific mainstream, as Stepan and Gilman have noted. There was in other words, scant scientific support on the side of abolition. The question with which I began my investigation was whether reading the literary work of abolitionists might reveal the influence of statistical and scientific data. In other words, did abolitionists, who were largely excluded from the realm of scientific insiders, use their fictional, autobiographical, and polemic works to respond to the conclusions of that field? That my interest here is in looking at literary responses to scientific discourse is not to say that scientific writing in favor of abolition was nonexistent. Frederick Douglass himself offered one example of it in a commencement address. Such work was marginalized, however, perhaps owing to his lack of scientific training. In addition to being the height of abolition debates, this was a time of the increasing professionalization of science—one result of which was to exclude non-professionals from its discourse. Stepan and Gilmer have suggested that abolitionists continued to rely on theological and moral arguments to make their case, essentially ignoring the rhetorical demands created by an emerging proslavery science. What I am asking here, however, is whether we can uncover direct responses to scientific discourse embedded in these literary works—and, moreover, how that response differs among Black and white abolitionists. Quantitative evidence took center stage in proslavery arguments with the release of the 1840 census. Its data offered a startling picture of sanity and insanity among Black Americans: by the census’ count, only one in 1500 enslaved African Americans were “insane.” By this measure, slaves appeared to be even healthier, emotionally and intellectually speaking, than their free white counterparts. Fitting into the “positive good” argument that slavery benefitted everyone involved, this figure alone was potent evidence for the proslavery case. Even more damning, however, to abolitionist arguments, was the number of free people of color who were counted insane—one in 144. By this count, the rate of insanity was eleven times higher among free people of color than it was among those who were enslaved (Deutsch). These numbers, it probably goes without saying, were deeply flawed and ultimately rejected. That, however, didn’t prevent them from being widely circulated and influential. Before proceeding, I’d like to clarify the definition of insanity in the mid 19th century. It was an umbrella term for any “unsoundness of mind” including including mania, dementia, idiocy, monomania and melancholia (Griffin, 372; Gamwell and Tomes, 71). When I use the term “insanity, I do so in the historically situated sense, and I hope you Reproducedwill envision with permission quotation of the copyright owner.marks Further enclosing reproduction prohibited them without as permission. I do. The same is true for “idiocy,” which was at this time a clinical term for what we would now describe as cognitive or intellectual disability. These terms were so broad and encompassing that they were eminently malleable. The definition, of course, was controlled by scientific insiders—which put abolitionists like Child, Douglass, and Brown, in a precarious rhetorical situation. Though they were excluded from offering any credible scientific argument by the fact that they were not trained in the discipline, their works were nonetheless subject to a number of rhetorical traps laid by the protean concept of insanity. The census itself didn’t distinguish between these types of insanity, but contemporary discourse did. To borrow a formulation applied to later disability discourse from James Trent, the insane were viewed alternately as “menace” and “burden”—in neither case, of course, candidates for productive, free citizenship. I’ll consider four images of Black insanity that fall into these categories: The menacing violent rebel (a Nat Turner figure) and the morally insane depraved madman. The potentially burdensome figure of Black insanity was the pitiable but incompetent brutalized idiot. A final image of Black insanity, the tragic mulatta, was versatile, portrayed alternately as menacing and burdensome. Perhaps the most widely circulated report of this census data was published in the Southern)Literary)Messenger) proslavery Southern Literary Messenger— Let$us$then$suppose$a$half$of$a$million$of$free$negroes$suddenly$ turned$loose$in$Virginia,$whose$propensity$it$is,$constantly$to$ most famous, perhaps, for publishing much grow$more$vicious$in$a$state$of$freedom;$Where$should$we$find$ Peniten=aries$for$the$thousands$of$felons?$Where,$luna=c$ of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. The Messenger’s asylums$for$the$tens$of$thousands$of$maniacs?$Would$it$be$ article on the census used the data to stoke possible$to$live$in$a$country$where$maniacs$and$felons$met$the$ traveler$at$every$cross@road?$(“Reflec=ons”$355@56)$ fear in the free white populace. $ Accompanying the numbers is twelve pages of commentary in which the author imagines several post-emancipation scenario in his state. He invites us to, S=lls$from$Birth)of)a)Na4on,$Dir.$D.W.$Griffith,$1915.$Reprinted$from$hQp://www.authen=chistory.com$/diversity/african/4@brute/$$ Let us then suppose a half of a million of free negroes suddenly turned loose in Virginia, whose propensity it is, constantly to grow more vicious in a state of freedom; If freedom will have this effect on former slaves, the prospect of emancipation presents an imminent threat to white life and property, prompting the pragmatic question, as the author asks, Where should we find Penitentiaries for the thousands of felons? Where, lunatic asylums for the tens of thousands of maniacs? Imagining masses of criminally insane free people of color, the author conjures a scene that anticipates Griffith’s Birth of a Nation when he asks Would it be possible to live in a country where maniacs and felons met the traveler at every cross-road? (355-56) This scene likely brought to readers’ minds Confessions(of(Nat(Turner( figures like Nat Turner, whose revolt still Thomas'Gray' haunted the public consciousness. The editor of A'gloomy'fana0c…revolving'in'the'recesses'of'' Turners Confessions, Thomas Gray, his'own'dark,'bewildered,'and'overwrought' characterizes him as just this kind of “maniac.” mind,'schemes'of'indiscriminate'massacre'to' the'whites'(243).'' Turner was, in Gray’s words, “a gloomy ' fanatic…revolving in the recesses of his own dark, bewildered, and overwrought mind, schemes of indiscriminate massacre to the whites.” (243) This is the “maniac and felon” Image'from'Dan'McKay,'Round(the(Balladee.('hGp://danKmcnay.blogspot.com/ 2009/12/noKmoreKgrewKsomeKpicturesKpromise.html' that the Messenger suggests will haunt every crossroads in America should slavery be abolished. Lydia Maria Child addresses this fear in her Child’s(Appeal( Appeal, but offers

Load more