Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they \"stole\" two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner's \"Confessions\" reveals the ways in which Douglass reappropriates the \"stolen\" slave's voice and works to-further abolition in the antebellum era.
","abstract_html":"<p>Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they "stole" two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner's "Confessions" reveals the ways in which Douglass reappropriates the "stolen" slave's voice and works to-further abolition in the antebellum era.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tharp, Allison L"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ellen Weinauer"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:06Z","subjects":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/566","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ellen Weinauer"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tharp, Allison L"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-11-27T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/566"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they \"stole\" two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner's \"Confessions\" reveals the ways in which Douglass reappropriates the \"stolen\" slave's voice and works to-further abolition in the antebellum era.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"We Need the Storm, the Whirlwind, the Earthquake\": The Intersection of Language and Violence in Nat Turner's \"Confessions\" and Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ellen Weinauer"],"dc:creator":["Tharp, Allison L"],"dc:date.available":["2018-11-27T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they \"stole\" two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner's \"Confessions\" reveals the ways in which Douglass reappropriates the \"stolen\" slave's voice and works to-further abolition in the antebellum era.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/566"],"dc:subject":["Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"],"dc:title":["\"We Need the Storm, the Whirlwind, the Earthquake\": The Intersection of Language and Violence in Nat Turner's \"Confessions\" and Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:06Z"}