British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment and Slavery, 1760-1807 (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print)

British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility argues that participants in the late eighteenth-century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric, using the language of the heart to powerful effect in the most important political and humanitarian battle of the time. Examining both familiar and unfamiliar texts, including poetry, novels, journalism, and political writing, Carey shows that salve-owners and abolitionists alike made strategic use of the rhetoric of sensibility in the hope of influencing a reading public thoroughly immersed in the 'cult of feeling'. British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment, and Slavery, 1760-1807 argues that participants in the late eighteenth-century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric, using the language of the heart to powerful effect in the most important political and humanitarian battle of the time. Carey examines both familiar and unfamiliar texts, including poetry by Thomas Day, Hannah More, and William Cowper, novels by Sarah Scott, Henry Mackenzie, and Thomas Day, life writing by Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, and Ottobah Cugoano, and political writing by James Ramsey, Thomas Clarkson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Carey balances his readings of these texts by recovering a sense of the abolition debate as it was played out in newspapers and the periodical press, as well as in reports of parliamentary debate and celebrated trials. Throughout, Carey shows that slave-owners and abolitionists alike made strategic use of the rhetoric of sensibility in the hope of influencing a reading public thoroughly immersed in the 'cult of feeling'. British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment, and Slavery, 1760-1807 argues that participants in the late eighteenth-century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric, using the language of the heart to powerful effect in the most important political and humanitarian battle of the time. Carey examines both familiar and unfamiliar texts, including poetry by Thomas Day, Hannah More, and William Cowper, novels by Sarah Scott, Henry Mackenzie, and Thomas Day, life writing by Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, and Ottobah Cugoano, and political writings by James Ramsey, Thomas Clarkson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Carey balances his readings of these texts by recovering a sense of the abolition as it was played out in newspapers and the periodical press, as well as in reports of parliamentary debate and celebrated trials. Throughout, Carey shows that slave-owners and abolitionists alike made strategic use of the rhetoric of sensibility in the hope of influencing a reading public thoroughly immersed in the 'cult of feeling' Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-17 The Rhetoric of Sensibility....Pages 18-45 Arguing in Prose: Abolitionist Letters and Novels....Pages 46-72 Arguing in Verse: Abolitionist Poetry....Pages 73-106 ‘Read This, and Blush’: The Pamphlet War of the 1780s....Pages 107-143 Feeling Out Loud: Sentimental Rhetoric in Parliament, the Pulpit, and the Court of Law....Pages 144-185 Conclusion: Romanticism, Revolution, and William Wilberforce’s Unregarded Tears....Pages 186-196 Back Matter....Pages 197-240

Carey argues that participants in the late eighteenth-century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric, using the language of the heart to powerful effect. Examining poetry, novels, journalism, and political writing, Carey shows that slave-owners and abolitionists alike made strategic use of the rhetoric of sensibility in the hope of influencing a reading public thoroughly immersed in the "cult of feeling."

Machine generated contents note: List of IllustrationsIntroduction1. Changing the Subject: Aesthetic Displacement, Museum Display, and the French Revolution in The Prelude2. Facing History: Galleries and Portraits in Waverley's Historiography3. Reframing the National Imagination in Maria Edgeworth's Harrington4. Carving Out the Public Sphere: Romantic Literary Periodicals and the Elgin MarblesEpilogueBibliographyIndex. Material Culture and Sedition, 1688-1760 is a groundbreaking study of the ways in which material culture (and its associated designs, rituals and symbols) was used to avoid prosecution for treason and sedition in the British Isles. The fresh theoretical model it presents challenges existing accounts of the public sphere and consumer culture. This book argues that Romantic-era writers used the figure of the minstrel to imagine authorship as a social, responsive enterprise unlike the solitary process portrayed by Romantic myths of the lone genius. Simpson highlights the centrality of the minstrel to many important literary developments from the Romantic era through to the 1840s. Friendship and Allegiance explores the concept of friendship as it was defined, contested and distorted by writers of the early eighteenth century. Setting well-known canonical texts (The Beggar's Opera, Gulliver's Travels) alongside lesser-known works, it portrays a literary world renegotiating the meaning of public and private virtue. Brycchan Carey uses texts from poetry, novels, journalism and political writing to argue that participants in the late 18th century slavery debate developed a distinct sentimental rhetoric in the hope of influencing their readership