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Author Kamensky, Jane

Title Governing the tongue : the politics of speech in early New England / Jane Kamensky
Published New York : Oxford University Press, 1997

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 291 pages) : illustrations
Contents 1 The Sweetest Meat, the Bitterest Poison 17 -- 2 A Most Unquiet Hiding Place 43 -- 3 The Misgovernment of Woman's Tongue 71 -- 4 "Publick Fathers" and Cursing Sons 99 -- 5 Saying and Unsaying 127 -- 6 The Tongue Is a Witch 150 -- Appendix Litigation over Speech in Massachusetts, 1630-1692 195
Summary Colonial New Englanders would have found our modern notions of free speech very strange indeed. Children today shrug off harsh words by chanting "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me," but in the seventeenth century people felt differently. "A soft tongue breaketh the bone," they often said. Governing the Tongue explains why the spoken word assumed such importance in the culture of early New England. Author Jane Kamensky re-examines such famous Puritan events as the Salem witch trials and the banishment of Anne Hutchinson to expose the ever-present fear of what the puritans called "sins of the tongue." But even while dangerous or deviant speech was restricted, Kamensky points out, godly speech was continuously praised and promoted. Congregations were told that one should ones voice "like a trumpet" to God and "cry out and cease not." By placing speech at the heart of familiar stories of Puritan New England, Kamensky develops new ideas about the relationship between speech and power both in Puritan New England and, by extension, in our world today
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-280) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject English language -- Political aspects -- New England
English language -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History
English language -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
English language -- Spoken English -- New England
Language and culture -- New England -- History
Oral communication -- New England -- History
English language -- 18th century -- History
Americanisms -- New England -- History
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- General.
Americanisms
English language
English language -- Early modern
English language -- Political aspects
English language -- Religious aspects -- Christianity
English language -- Spoken English
Language and culture
Oral communication
SUBJECT New England -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85091268
Subject New England
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 97010595
ISBN 0585223483
9780585223483
1280449845
9781280449840
9780195090802
0195090802
9786610449842
6610449848
9780195351361
0195351363