Sympathetic Violence: Maria Stewart's Antebellum Vision of African American Resistance
| Autor: | Christina Henderson |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. 38:52-75 |
| ISSN: | 1946-3170 0163-755X |
| Popis: | Between January 7, 1832 and May 4, 1833, William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator, published six articles by abolitionist and black nationalist Maria W. Stewart. In these articles, Stewart spoke in two seemingly contradictory registers as she described God’s interactions with humanity. On the one hand, she portrayed a gentle God who directed his angels to carry oppressed individuals “into Abraham’s bosom [where] they shall be comforted” (“Address: Delivered before” 66); on the other hand, she warned sinners—specifically white American sinners—of a wrathful and violent God who was on the verge of sending “horror and devastation” to the world (“Address, Delivered in”). While these two images may seem paradoxical to contemporary readers, they reflect the connection between sympathy and violence that permeated Stewart’s theology and structured her concept of Christian community. She believed God’s compassion for suffering believers would motivate him to punish their tormenters and that African American Christians should follow his example by protecting one another with force if necessary. This juxtaposition of Christian mercy and retributive violence also points to the crucial but often minimized role of African American women such as Stewart who were uniquely situated to collaborate with black nationalists and white abolitionists. As an important figure in radical political action, Stewart helps us to better understand the multivalent forces that shaped resistance movements in the early nineteenth century. Stewart, a free African American widow who lived in Boston during the 1830s, was one of the first American women to lecture before mixedrace and mixed-gender audiences (Richardson, Preface xiii-xiv). She passionately and publicly advocated for abolition and racial equality, and many of her speeches were printed in The Liberator. While most scholarship regarding nineteenthcentury black nationalism and violent resistance movements has focused on men such as David Walker and Martin Delany, discussions surrounding women abolitionists have typically highlighted pacifist activists such as Lucretia |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|