Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New EnglandGoverning the Tongue explains why the spoken word assumed such importance in the culture of early New England. In a work that is at once historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic, Jane Kamensky explores the little-known words of unsung individuals, and reconsiders such famous Puritan events as the banishment of Anne Hutchinson and the Salem witch trials, to expose the ever-present fear of what the Puritans called "sins of the tongue." But even while dangerous or deviant speech was restricted, as Kamensky illustrates here, godly speech was continuously praised and promoted. Congregations were told that one should lift one's voice "like a trumpet" to God and "cry out and cease not." By placing speech at the heart of New England's early history, Kamensky develops new ideas about the complex relationship between speech and power in both Puritan New England and, by extension, our world today. |
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Contents
| 3 | |
The Sweetest Meat the Bitterest Poison | 17 |
A Most Unquiet Hiding Place | 43 |
The Misgovernment of Womans Tongue | 71 |
Publick Fathers and Cursing Sons | 99 |
Saying and Unsaying | 127 |
Other editions - View all
Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England Jane Kamensky Limited preview - 1997 |
Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England Jane Kamensky No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
accused American Ann Hibbens Anne Hutchinson Antinomian argued Assts authority Boston Bradford Calvin Cambridge century Church civil Colony colony's confession congregation Cotton Mather court crime cultural cursing Defamation devil discourse early modern early New England ears elders English Essex County Essex File Papers female gender godly heard Hibbens's History husband Increase Mather Indian Ipswich John Cotton John Cotton's Sermons John Endecott John Porter John Porter Jr John Winthrop Keayne language leaders Liberties linguistic magistrates Magnalia Christi Americana Mary Mass ministers misspeakers mouth neighbors Norton Note-book of John offenders Plymouth Plantation preachers preaching Presentment public apology punishments Puritan Quakers Records Recs religious reprinted New York rhetoric Salem Samuel scolding Scripture seventeenth Seventeenth-Century New England silence slander social Society speech Story Thomas Thomas Morton tion tongue trials University Press uttered verbal voice vols wife William William Perkins Winthrop Papers witch Witch-Hunting witchcraft woman women
Popular passages
Page 4 - I SAID, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England |
| Author | Jane Kamensky |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0195351363, 9780195351361 |
| Length | 304 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |