Sep 20 2008
Cima’s paper again
Electricity is equated with rebellion in John Neal’s Logan: A Family History (1822):
The old governor idolises the boy. There is so much in his nature, of that heroick self abandonment; so much of chivalry, that immortal spirit which men love to dream of. We may condemn it, denounce it, in the hearing of our children, but let the deed be done , to which this spirit hath impelled one, let the thought be expressed , and lo! the eloquent crimson of the heart flashes upward, like lightning, to the cheeks, to the eye, through all the trembling and agitated extremities, in approbation of both! Such is man! This inconceivable property of youth, this incommunicable thought of passionate daring, sent home, like a fire brand, successively, through the linked hearts of a multitude, will kindle a whole people to rebellion. God!What is it! The electricity of the soul. One arm is waved, and lo! unnumbered arms accompany it. One voice is lifted up; and straightway the heavens are ringing with the cry of a whole nation! Empires move off in the desperate incantation of a young spirit, newly baptized in fire, dipped for immortality, when it first ascends to the place of sacrifice, with a face shining like his—who came down from the mountain, with the presence of Jehovah abiding upon his forehead, and stretching out his arms to the air! How like are his operations to those of that penetrating, quick illimitable fire of heaven, which agitates the elements to instantaneous combustion, thundering within the hollow caverns of the earth, and trumpeting aloud in the skies! What is it? whence is it, this godlike pre-eminence of man? (Chapter IV:61)
Neal seems to be saying that certain people possess a kind of electricity in them that is transferable to other people. When this happens, individuals somehow begin to unite as one, following this “electrical leader.” With this kind of electricity, rebellion occurs. Hmm, abolitionist’s appropriation of the electrical metaphor falls in line with this line of thinking. Stowe wants to “electrify” her readers, or in Neal’s terms, wants to “transmit” her ideas to the public, uniting them behind or cause in the hopes that rebellion can occur.
That electricity is associated with uniting the masses isn’t surprising, given its relationship to the electromagnetic telegraph (“The Great Uniter”). Also, before the telegraph is even developed, the idea that electric principle that united all “things”–both inorganic and organic; living and non-living–was beginning to take over the scientific imagination. So, the appropriation of the electric metaphor in an abolitionist context isn’t too surprising: like the telegraph which unites individuals via electric copper wires, the “word” of a leader(s) needs to “electrify” the audience, and in the process making a “united” people. On a completely random note, could the telegraph be responsible for turning Americans from a lower case “u” (united) to an upper case “U” (THE United States of America). Don’t know if that makes any sense at all, but it’s a thought.
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