The "silent South": Growing up Deaf in the antebellum Southern states.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Joyner, Hannah Ruth.

Contributor:

Faust, Drew, advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History.

United States.

History.

0337.

Penn dissertations--History.

History--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--History.

History--Penn dissertations.

0337.

Physical Description:

405 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 61-10A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Americans in the nineteenth century assumed that deafness was a pitiable condition. Deaf children were seen as isolated from education, from religion, and from their communities. Hearing attitudes about deafness and Deaf people took on special meaning in the southern context. In the South, the influence of a system of chattel slavery and the economic, political, and social worlds that slavery engendered led to a culture of intense paternalism. Deaf people---even white men from elite families---were cast as dependents.

Although mainstream southern culture saw deafness as a misfortune, Deaf people themselves constructed a different world. Rather than seeing deafness as a source of pity, they construed it as a source of pride. Rather than seeking charity, the Deaf viewed their struggle as one of self-determination. Deafness was the foundation of their identities. They were educated separately from hearing children, used a language different from their parents' language, and found many of their lifelong friends within the Deaf community. Discrimination could turn deafness into a handicap, but Deaf people knew they were capable beings deserving of equality.

The Civil War escalated the divisions often felt between Deaf children and their hearing southern community. Teachers of the Deaf in the South were often themselves northerners or at least people who trained for their profession in the North. Many were motivated by reformist beliefs including abolition. When war broke out, most southern schools for the Deaf closed their doors to students. Some elite families chose to send their children to northern Deaf schools. Ultimately, the Civil War itself and the Confederacy's experience of loss cracked the system of mastery and hierarchy. However limited the ultimate changes to southern society were, these cracks allowed a few individuals to find a place where they could reconcile their identities as elite southerners and independent Deaf people.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in History) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-10, Section: A, page: 4148.

Adviser: Drew Faust.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9780599970007

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.