Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England

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Oxford University Press, 1999 M02 18 - 304 páginas
Governing the Tongue explains why the spoken word assumed such importance in the culture of early New England. In a work that is at once historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic, Jane Kamensky explores the little-known words of unsung individuals, and reconsiders such famous Puritan events as the banishment of Anne Hutchinson and the Salem witch trials, to expose the ever-present fear of what the Puritans called "sins of the tongue." But even while dangerous or deviant speech was restricted, as Kamensky illustrates here, godly speech was continuously praised and promoted. Congregations were told that one should lift one's voice "like a trumpet" to God and "cry out and cease not." By placing speech at the heart of New England's early history, Kamensky develops new ideas about the complex relationship between speech and power in both Puritan New England and, by extension, our world today.

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Contenido

Introduction
3
The Sweetest Meat the Bitterest Poison
17
A Most Unquiet Hiding Place
43
The Misgovernment of Womans Tongue
71
Publick Fathers and Cursing Sons
99
Saying and Unsaying
127
The Tongue Is a Witch
150
Epilogue
181
Litigation over Speech in Massachusetts 16301692
195
Notes
203
Index
281
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Página 4 - I SAID, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
Página 59 - A man of might at heavenly eloquence, To fix the ear and charm the conscience ; As if Apollos were revived in him, Or he had learned of a Seraphim. Spake many tongues in one : one voice and sense Wrought joy and sorrow, fear and confidence. Bocks rent before him, blind received their sight; Souls levell'd to the dunghill, stood upright.
Página 61 - Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are ; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.
Página 49 - Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
Página 174 - You are a liar ; I am no more a witch than you are a wizard ; and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.
Página 39 - Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Página 63 - GOD ALMIGHTIE in his most holy and wise providence hath soe disposed of the Condicion of mankinde, as in all times some must be rich some poore, some highe and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subieccion.
Página 249 - Thou fiery fighter and green-headed trumpeter ; thou hedgehog and grinning dog ; thou bastard, that tumbled out of the mouth of the Babylonish bawd; thou mole; thou tinker; thou lizard; thou bell of no metal, but the tone of a kettle ; thou wheelbarrow ; thou whirlpool ; thou whirligig : O thou firebrand ; thou adder and scorpion ; thou louse ; thou cow-dung ; thou moon-calf; thou ragged tatterdemallion ; thou Judas : thou livest in philosophy and logic, which are of the Devil.
Página 72 - You have stepped out of your place; you have rather been a husband than a wife, and a preacher than a hearer; and a magistrate than a subject...

Acerca del autor (1999)

Jane Kamensky is Assistant Professor of American History at Brandeis University and author of The Colonial Mosaic: American Women, 1600-1760 (OUP, 1995).

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