
The Columbian Orator
'The Columbian Orator' Summary
It is significant for inspiring a generation of American abolitionists, including orator and former slave Frederick Douglass; essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson; and author Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, self-taught writer and abolitionist Douglass praises the book as his first introduction to human history and eloquence. When he was 12 years old and still enslaved, he bought a copy using 50 cents he saved from shining shoes, and he "read [the essays] over and over again with unabated interest ... What [he] got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights."
Douglass was particularly inspired by a dialogue between an enslaved person and his master in The Columbian Orator that demonstrated the intelligence of the slave. In this passage, the master presented the slave with justifications of slavery, each of which the slave rebutted, until the master was convinced that the bondage was in fact unethical. The passage ended with the slave winning the argument and, therefore, his freedom. It can be assumed that the book's guidelines of oratory also contributed to Douglass's success as a public speaker; William Lloyd Garrison praised Douglass in the introduction of his autobiography, claiming, "Patrick Henry, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of liberty."
The Columbian Orator became symbolic not only of human rights but also of the power of eloquence and articulation.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1797Authors
Caleb Bingham
United Kingdom
Caleb Bingham (1757–1817) was an educator and textbook author of late 18th-century New England, whose works were also influential into the 19th and 20th. Among his most influential works were bo...
Books by Caleb BinghamDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

The National Geographic Magazine Vol. 05 by National Geographic Society
National Geographic (formerly the National Geographic Magazine, sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is the long-lived official monthly magazine of the Natio...

An Interpretation of Keats's Endymion by Henry Clement Notcutt
A careful study of Endymion made some ten years ago led to the conclusion that there was more of allegorical significance in the poem than had hithert...

Eugenics and Other Evils by Gilbert K. Chesterton
This was a book about eugenics, and it was -- but it was also a beautiful defense of property rights, a powerful assault on plutocratic elitism, and a...

The National Geographic Magazine Vol. 06 by National Geographic Society
National Geographic (formerly the National Geographic Magazine, sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is the long-lived official monthly magazine of the Natio...

The Fringe of an Art: Appreciations in Music by Vernon Blackburn
This is a captivating exploration of the world of music and its diverse facets. Published in [insert year of publication], this book delves into the i...

Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold
According to his view advanced in the book, "Culture is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: "[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to ma...

Two Poe Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
This collection of two short stories, 'How To Write a Blackwood Article' and 'A Predicament,' offers a satirical exploration of the conventions and fo...

De Vulgari Eloquentia by Dante Alighieri
De Vulgari Eloquentia by Dante Alighieri is a philosophical treatise written in Latin between 1302 and 1305. It discusses the evolution of language a...

Religio Journalistici by Christopher Morley
The essays likely focus on journalism and the role of the press in society."Religio Journalistici" is a collection of essays written by American autho...

What's Wrong With the World by Gilbert K. Chesterton
In this work, Chesterton repeatedly startles and shocks us, for he reads as if he were commenting on the latest issue of the New York Times rather tha...
Reviews for The Columbian Orator
No reviews posted or approved, yet...