When pastors go public: Richard Furman's public letter on slavery

• Inabinet, Brandon Michael ^[1]
  1. [1] Furman University

     Furman University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 76, nº 3, 2011, págs. 169-190
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Early in the history of South Carolina, leaders questioned pastoral influence as a potential threat to public discourse. The form of the public letter helped realize such a threat, by giving the eloquent and powerful Richard Furman a way to turn private correspondence into a multi-audience, transcendent appeal for the extension of slavery. The public letter was a hybrid genre of modern discourse, combining civic argument with intimate and social functions. The form allowed Furman to conceal his agency as a pastor delivering a written sermon on a timely political issue.