A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816-1864 (Gallaudet Classics Deaf Studie) [Paperback]

Christopher Krentz (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a welcome addition to the study of deaf literature. -- Library Journal, December 2000

...no scholar of deaf history or literature will want to be without a copy on the shelf. -- Disabilities Studies Quarterly, Summer 2001

A Mighty Change is a solid addition to our understanding of a complex and changing community. -- Ragged Edge, July 2001 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

The early part of the nineteenth century marked a dramatic shift in the perception of deaf people in the United States, beginning in 1817 with the establishment of the first permanent school for deaf students by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Theirs and other residential schools established during this period allowed deaf pupils to demonstrate that they could succeed in the classroom and beyond, disproving the then commonly held belief that deaf people were deficient and ineducable. A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816-1864 documents this deaf cultural explosion in dramatic style, through the letters, essays, and poetry of deaf individuals who experienced this transformation firsthand.

In A Mighty Change, Christopher Krentz has assembled a remarkable body of work by deaf individuals from every walk of life - educator, artist, pioneer, indigent, abolitionist - who shared in common that they were deaf before the age of eleven and that they identified mostly with the burgeoning signing community in America. Because of this orientation, they conversed naturally in American Sign Language, but they also learned to write well in English, essentially a foreign language to them. While they were happy to be able to communicate from afar with their loved ones, in many instances they also wrote to express their beliefs to the hearing majority.

The words of these deaf individuals show their full involvement in nineteenth-century American life and events: Edmund Booth sent letters to his wife about panning for gold in California during the 1849 gold rush; Lauren Redden Searing wrote impassioned verse in 1863 imploring her native state Missouri to embrace the Union cause; Adele Jewel described the thin line between prosperity and poverty for women and children, most of whom in this era were completely dependent upon their husbands and fathers for their livelihoods.

The prevalence of the fundamental form of Christianity practiced at the time, which saw deaf people as ignorant of the teachings of the Bible, and therefore incapable of salvation, also heavily influenced their work, as revealed in John Carlin's 1847 poem "The Mute's Lament," in which he declares his faith in "Heavenly Hope," where his "ears shall be unsealed and his "tongue shall be unbound." But other works show a gradual shift in the self-perception of deaf people, particularly the cogent speeches and remarks by Thomas Brown, Fisher Ames, and others at the 1850 grand reunion in Hartford, Connecticut, of students who had attended Gallaudet and Clerc's school; the brilliant epistolary debate between John Jacobus Flourney, William Chamberlain, and other deaf correspondents on founding a separate deaf commonwealth, published during 1856 in the American Annals of the Deaf; and the addresses by Clerc and Carlin celebrating in 1864 the inauguration of the first college for deaf students. A Mighty Change unveils an arc of achievement by deaf people in the United States that occurred in a little less than fifty years, a stunning record of how they lived their lives made even more vivid by being presented in their own words. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gallaudet University Press; 1st edition (December 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563681013
• ISBN-13: 978-1563681011
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,125,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have, November 21, 2001

By 

Jane Berger (Amherst, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816-1864 (Gallaudet Classics in Deaf Studies Series, Vol. 2) (Hardcover)

A Mighty Change is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in Deaf history or, more broadly, the perspectives of early national and antebellum Americans who are generally overlooked in discussions of U.S. history. The anthology contains valuable documents that clearly demonstrate that the Deaf civil rights movement began during the early nineteenth century. Featured is the writing of well known deaf activists such as Laurent Clerc, John Carlin and Edmund Booth. The collection also introduces less (but soon to be) famous deaf activists like John Burnet, whose penetrating analysis of the of the rhetoric used by antebellum educators of deaf children remains instructive for critics of Deaf education today. Krentz's useful chapter introductions and helpful footnotes explain the context of the documents and provide interesting interpretations of the issues the authors debate. Many of the documents in the collection are not easily available to interested readers who should not miss the opportunity to own this fantastic collection!

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have, November 21, 2001

By 

Jane Berger (Amherst, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816-1864 (Gallaudet Classics in Deaf Studies Series, Vol. 2) (Hardcover)

A Mighty Change is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in Deaf history or, more broadly, the perspectives of early national and antebellum Americans who are generally overlooked in discussions of U.S. history. The anthology contains valuable documents that clearly demonstrate that the Deaf civil rights movement began during the early nineteenth century. Featured is the writing of well known deaf activists such as Laurent Clerc, John Carlin and Edmund Booth. The collection also introduces less (but soon to be) famous deaf activists like John Burnet, whose penetrating analysis of the of the rhetoric used by antebellum educators of deaf children remains instructive for critics of Deaf education today. Krentz's useful chapter introductions and helpful footnotes explain the context of the documents and provide interesting interpretations of the issues the authors debate. Many of the documents in the collection are not easily available to interested readers who should not miss the opportunity to own this fantastic collection!