Abstract Frederick Douglass's Freedmen's Monument Address, delivered on April 14, 1876, at the unveiling of a monument to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC, was a complex and extraordinary rhetorical act. This essay argues that Douglass's address created a measured memory of Lincoln by moving the audience through a cycle of experiences that allowed multiple, often conflicting, sentiments to meaningfully coexist. The essay begins with an account of key contextual elements about Douglass, Lincoln, and the events that shaped the address. The next section turns to the text of the Freedmen's Monument Address, showing how Douglass's use of a ring composition served to memorialize both Black Americans and Lincoln in complex ways. The essay concludes with observations about how the address was received, which illustrates the difficulty of maintaining rhetorical complexity in acts of memorialization.

Abstract This essay situates Abraham Lincoln’s Second Annual Message within the context of previous discourse on African colonization to illuminate the significance of the text as public policy rhetoric. I argue that Lincoln’s proposal for compensated emancipation and colonization in the Second Annual Message was the apotheosis of colonization advocacy. Lincoln’s argumentation navigated the complicated context to make a final, but failed, case for a compromise between North and South before the Final Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

Book Review| December 01 2015 In the Shadow of the Gallows: Race, Crime, and American Civic Identity In the Shadow of the Gallows: Race, Crime, and American Civic Identity. By Jeannine Marie DeLombard. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012; pp. x + 446. $59.95 cloth; $27.50 paper. Bjørn F. Stillion Southard Bjørn F. Stillion Southard University of Georgia Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2015) 18 (4): 798–801. https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.18.4.0798 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Bjørn F. Stillion Southard; In the Shadow of the Gallows: Race, Crime, and American Civic Identity. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 December 2015; 18 (4): 798–801. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.18.4.0798 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2015 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.2015 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Abstract The American Colonization Society emerged at a time when some Americans believed that a "moderate" solution to the problem of slavery could be achieved by removing free blacks to Africa. Upon announcing its formation in 1816, the society received a public rejoinder: the Counter Memorial against African Colonization. This essay explores multiple interpretations of the Counter Memorial to demonstrate the instability of colonizationists moderate rhetorical position. More specifically, this essay argues that the Counter Memorial suspends colonization within the uneasy and unresolved tensions manifested by competing depictions of blackness, or black personae, in American public discourse at the time.

Book Review| March 01 2011 Common Bondage: Slavery as Metaphor in Revolutionary America Common Bondage: Slavery as Metaphor in Revolutionary America. Peter A. Dorsey. Bjørn F. Stillion Southard Bjørn F. Stillion Southard Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2011) 14 (1): 177–180. https://doi.org/10.2307/41940531 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Bjørn F. Stillion Southard; Common Bondage: Slavery as Metaphor in Revolutionary America. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 March 2011; 14 (1): 177–180. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/41940531 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2011 Michigan State University Board of Trustees2011 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.