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
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English language -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History
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English language -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
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English language -- Spoken English -- New England
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Language and culture -- New England -- History
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Oral communication -- New England -- History
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English language -- 18th century -- History
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Americanisms -- New England -- History
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LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- General.
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Americanisms
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English language
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English language -- Early modern
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English language -- Political aspects
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English language -- Religious aspects -- Christianity
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English language -- Spoken English
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Language and culture
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Oral communication
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SUBJECT |
New England -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85091268
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Subject |
New England
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Genre/Form |
History
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Form |
Electronic book
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LC no. |
97010595 |
ISBN |
0585223483 |
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9780585223483 |
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1280449845 |
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9781280449840 |
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9780195090802 |
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0195090802 |
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9786610449842 |
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6610449848 |
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9780195351361 |
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0195351363 |
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