Details

Abstract / Summary

The antebellum South’s economic dependence on slavery engendered a rigid social order in which a small number of privileged white men dominated African Americans, poor whites, women, and many people with disabilities. From Pity to Pride examines the experiences of a group of wealthy young men raised in the old South who also would have ruled over this closely regimented world had they not been deaf. Instead, the promise of status was gone, replaced by pity, as described by one deaf scion, “I sometimes fancy some people to treat me as they would a child to whom they were kind.” In this unique and fascinating history, Hannah Joyner depicts in striking detail the circumstances of these so-called victims of a terrible “misfortune.” Joyner makes clear that Deaf people in the North also endured prejudice. She also explains how the cultural rhetoric of paternalism and dependency in the South codified a stringent system of oppression and hierarchy that left little room for self-determination for Deaf southerners. From Pity to Pride reveals how some of these elite Deaf people rejected their family’s and society’s belief that being deaf was a permanent liability. Rather, they viewed themselves as competent and complete. As they came to adulthood, they joined together with other Deaf Americans, both southern and northern, to form communities of understanding, self-worth, and independence.

Field of Interest

Disability Studies

Author

Hannah Joyner, fl. 2004

Copyright Message

Copyright © 2004 Gallaudet University Press

Content Type

Book

Duration

0 sec

Warning: Contains explicit content

No

Format

Text

Original Publication Date

2004

Page Count

223

Publication Year

2004

Publisher

Gallaudet University Press

Place Published / Released

District of Columbia

Subject

Disability Studies, Diversity, Theory, Race, Class, Sexuality & Gender, Independence, Education, & Accessibility, Personal independence, Discrimination, Slavery, Prejudice, Deafness, Theoretical Perspectives, History and Theory, Teoría, Teoria, Gender, Class, Economic status, Raza, Clase, Sexualidad y Genero, Raça, Classe, Sexualidade e Gênero, Sexuality, Accessibility and Independence, History of Care, Independência, Educação e Acessibilidade, Independencia, Educación y Accesibilidad, Education, Expansion & Sectionalism (1829–1859)

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Theoretical Perspectives, History and Theory, Teoría, Teoria, Gender, Class, Economic status, Raza, Clase, Sexualidad y Genero, Raça, Classe, Sexualidade e Gênero, Sexuality, Accessibility and Independence, History of Care, Independência, Educação e Acessibilidade, Independencia, Educación y Accesibilidad, Education