Aesthetic power: electric words and the example of Frederick Douglass. From: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) | Date: December 1, 2002| Author: Gilmore, Paul | COPYRIGHT 2002 University of Rhode Island. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

In his 1845 Narrative, Frederick Douglass speaks of a slave's argument for freedom in The Columbian Orator as giving "tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance" (42). Later, after being "broken" by Mr. Covey, Douglass comments that occasionally, still, "a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul accompanied by a faint beam of hope" (58). These metaphors of flashing hopes and thoughts...