Forging Peace by Threatening Violence: Nonviolence through Rhetorical Violence in Eugene Debs's “Arouse, Ye Slaves!”
Abstract
Abstract In 1906, Eugene V. Debs published the most infamous editorial of his career, entitled “Arouse, Ye Slaves!” Addressing the murder charges against prominent Western Federation of Miners leadership, Debs mobilized threats and rhetorical violence to provoke attention to reportedly unjust legal practices. “Arouse, Ye Slaves!” remains something of a puzzling outlier in Debs's rhetorical canon. Despite his established legacy of peaceful protest and his preference for education toward gradual change, he announced a bold plan in the editorial for violent revolt and immediate upheaval. Through an analysis of “Arouse, Ye Slaves!” in context, I argue Debs invoked rhetorical violence in the service of ultimately peaceful outcomes, suggesting a theory of rhetorical violence geared toward nonviolent social change. This study contributes a recovery of the Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone murder controversy for rhetorical scholars, while providing an expanded theoretical understanding of rhetorical violence to explain Debs's puzzling but successful navigation of an uncharacteristic rhetorical strategy.
- Journal
- Rhetoric & Public Affairs
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.28.1.0101
- CompPile
- Search in CompPile ↗
- Open Access
- Closed
- Topics
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation Context
Cited by in this index (0)
No articles in this index cite this work.
References (0)
No references on file for this article.
Related Articles
-
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly May 2026Joe Edward Hatfield
-
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication May 2026The User Experience of Virtual Reality for Longitudinal Writing: A Diary Study of Immersive Graduate Dissertation Composing Experience ↗Jason Tham; Rich Shivener; Niveditha Pookkottuvariam; Sarah Riddick
-
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Apr 2026Psyche or Soma?: An Analysis of the Medical Debates Over the Diagnosis and Treatment of “Transsexualism” ↗Samantha Rippetoe
-
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Apr 2026Molly McConnell
-
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Feb 2026Danielle Bacibianco