1st Edition
Texting the Nation Agencies and Actions in the Declaration of Independence
Preface
List of Acronyms
Introduction: The Declaration of Independence and Criticism
Finding "the" Declaration of Independence: Notes on the Text(s)
1. Agent(s)/Agency, Slavery and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century British North America
as Rhetoric (and Some Reality)
2. The Major Premise: Ambiguating The Human Condition, Government, and Divine Passivity
3. The Minor Premise: The Omnipotent Potentate, the Grievances, and Slavery
(and the Virginia Constitution, 1776-1903)
4. Authorizing and Accomplishing Independence: Jefferson's Double-Columned Conclusion, the Return (or Not) of God, and the Multiplying/Dividing Declaration
Conclusion: There’s Something About the Declaration of Independence (But What Is It?)
Index
Biography
Michael Ditmore is Professor of English specializing in early American literature and Great Books at Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, where he has also served as Director of American Studies and Dean of the Humanities/Teacher Education Division. He has previously published on William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Ashbridge, Jonathan Edwards, Crèvecoeur, and Benjamin Franklin.
