Doug Childers
HIST4000
Professor Gagnon
Treatment of Deaf Citizens in Antebellum
From Benevolent Paternalism To Forced Assimilation
Antebellum
Paternalism is the symbiotic
relationship wherein an authority figure treats his subordinate in the same
manner a parent would treat their child.
The authority figure controls and provides for nearly every aspect of
the subordinate's life; in return, the subordinate performs some service on
behalf of the principal.[2] This social concept is evident throughout
Antebellum America when examining the relationships embedded in northeastern
factory mills, southern plantations, and the treatment of social inferiors
within all of society.
The Second Great Awakening of
the 19th century ushered in social reform through the actions of citizens
practicing the doctrine of Protestant Evangelicalism. Social reformers of this time period, "…traced social evils to the weakness of
individuals and believed that the reformation of society would only occur
through the moral reformation of its members."[3] A prominent member of this social movement
was Thomas Hopkins Gaulladet. Gaulladet
established the American Asylum for the Deaf in
American Asylum for the Deaf
Thomas Hopkins Gaulladet’s assertion that deaf people were “wandering in a
moral desert,” laid the foundation for the purpose of the American Asylum.[4] This asylum aimed to provide education for
the deaf citizens of not only
The foundation of benevolent
paternalism was implemented by Gaulladet.
Gualladet wrote, "there
is scarcely a more interesting site than a bright, cheerful deaf-mute, of one
or two years of age".[5] Noted Phyllis Valentine, Gaulladet, "did
not assume that deaf people were his social or intellectual inferiors."[6] However, as the authority figures within the
school changed, so did the treatment of the students within the school. Gaulladet's
paternalistic benevolence was later replaced with Collins Stone's paternalism
rooted in negativity. Collins Stone
viewed himself as an administrator, not as an idealist looking to improve the
life of the deaf children.[7] At this time, the deaf children were no
longer regarded as students but as inmates within a heavily structured system.
Before
1835, the only deaf children within the state of
Beginning
in 1842, the state of
Role a Deaf Member of Society Played During Antebellum
A
deaf member of society was immediately viewed as an outcast by the antebellum
society. The distancing of deaf people
from society can be attributed to the idea that "deafness was most often
described as an affliction that isolated the individual from the Christian
Community."[12] The creation of various schools specifically
for the deaf signified their distinction from the rest of society.
The
nineteenth-century conflict between "oralists" and
"manualists" as it relates to the education of deaf children
demonstrates the lack of control deaf citizens had over their choices or
actions. Manualists were concerned with
the teaching of sign language within the deaf educational institutions. Conversely, the goal of oralists was to teach
lip reading. Oralists argued that sign
language was further isolating deaf citizens from the rest of society.
Paralleling
the segregation the nation was already experiencing with immigrants due to
their inability to speak English, oralists asserted that deaf citizens were
continuing along this same path.[13] Oralists were enthralled with the idea that
the use of sign language would further alienate a class within society. Alexander Graham Bell, a proponent of the
Oralist movement, warned that having a portion of the population segmented off
due to their use of sign language would further alienate an isolated
population.
On
the opposite end of the Oralist point of view was local Athenian, John Jacob
Flournoy. Flournoy was a local deaf
citizen who proposed a the creation of a "
At
the turn of the Civil War, the new emphasis on social reform was on the macro
level.[17] Characterizations of manual forms of communication
as "disorderly, irrational gesticulation," allowed the oralists to
triumph.[18] Rejecting the wishes of nearly the entire
deaf constituency, lip reading was adopted as the new form of assimilating the
deaf citizens into the community. The
simple fact the objections of deaf citizens were ignored due to the wishes of
society stresses the belittlement of deaf citizens by their controlling
superiors within society.
Phyllis
Valentine asserts that the treatment of deaf citizens within this nation relates
significantly to their social class within society. Initially, most of the students in contact
with the public were those from upper-middle class backgrounds. However, as more and more states started to
supply education and refuge for their deaf constituents, a lower-class of deaf
citizenry emerged into the public eye.
Furthermore, once the schools for the deaf started to treat their
students as inmates stripped of their identity, the rest of society took notice
and followed.[19] The idea of creating a safe-haven for
hearing-impaired citizens was replaced with forced assimilation into a culture
that wanted them segregated into asylums to begin with.
Deaf
citizens, towards the end of the nineteenth-century, were treated with the same
regard we treat lab animals today. They
were exploited like traveling freak shows in order for specialized schools to
raise money to serve the needs of their deaf constituents. As Protestant principals paraded their
subjects on tours across municipalities, "pity and wonder" drew the
spectators forward at each stop.
Experimentation procedures and results were announced to crowds in the
thousands in the same atmosphere that would be associated with P.T Barnum's
traveling side show.[20]
These
laboratory-themed undertows regarding the relationships between the principals
and deaf citizens was centered
upon the hypothesis that the power of God was transfixed in everyone. The idea that a deaf or
blind person who cannot hear or see evil is therefore the most pure aspect of
what God intended for us to be was simply not true. Commented the author
Douglas Baynton on the treatment of Laura Bridgeman, a deaf-mute, "…it
became clear that she was just another complex and confused human being like
everyone else. Her thoughts were
not pristine, nor were her motives pure."[21] A unique aspect of the
"inconclusive" results produced through this theory was the gradual
abandonment by the religious movements of the disabled once they were of no
help to them anymore.[22]
Conclusion
Protestant Evangelicalism
embarked on many crusades during the nineteenth-century. Their attempts to spread the word of
Christianity into the
Belittled and seemingly
stripped away from their individualism, deaf people of the antebellum time
period saw their already marginal role deteriorate as Protestant Evangelicalism
swept the nation. The fact that deaf
citizens were ushered away to asylums and segregated from the rest of the public
underscored their distinctive role in society as that of a cast-away. Benevolent paternalism was undermined with
views of paternalism emphasizing inequality.
This emphasis on inequality resulted in the role of a deaf citizen in
antebellum
[1] Valetine, Phyliss, "Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: Benevolent Paternalism and the Origins of the American
Asylum," Deaf History Unveiled: Interpretations from the New Scholarship, (1993): 55.
[2] Cashin, Edward J., Eskew, Glenn
T, Paternalism in a Southern City:
Race, Religion, and Gender in
[3] Baynton, Douglas C., "A Silent Exile on Earth: The Metaphorical Construction of Deafness in the
Nineteenth Centry," American Quarterly, Volume 44, Issue 2 (June 1992), 220; in JSTOR;
accessed
on
[4] Valentine, 55.
[5] Valentine, 55.
[6] Valentine, 55.
[7] Valentine, 65.
[8] Harris, James Coffee, Cave Spring and Van's Valley (Cave Springs, GA: 1927), 39.
[9] "Governor Schely's Message," Southern Banner,
[10] "Governor Schely's Message," Southern Banner,
[11] Harris, 39.
[12] Baynton, 216.
[13] Baynton, 217-18.
[14] Longmore, Paul K., "Uncovering the Hidden History of
People with Disabilities," Reviews in
American History, Volume 15, Issue 3, (Sep. 1987), 357; in JSTOR; accessed on
[15] "Edmund Booth: Deaf Renaissance Man"; available from http://www.workersforjesus.com/dfi/881.htm;
Internet; accessed
[16]
"To All the World," Southern Banner,
[17] Bayton, 220.
[18] Longmore, Paul K., 356.
[19] Valentine, 68.
[20] Baynton, Douglas C., "Laura Bridgeman and the History of Disability", 229; in Project Muse,
ABC-CILO; accessed on March
17, 2003.
[21] Baynton, 229.