Laying Down Heads in Written and Oral Composition

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
William L. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Dartmouth College ◽  
American Education ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Early American ◽  
Formal Instruction ◽  
Connecticut River Valley ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
George Whitefield ◽  
Oral Composition ◽  
Rhetorical Performance

Chapter Two explores Joseph Smith's personal style of composition in relation to contemporary print conventions, as well as early American education and popular preaching methods and techniques. The chapter focuses on the method of "laying down heads," or the use of preliminary outlines to compose and deliver sermons. The chapter begins with a brief look at John Walker's popular system of composition in early American education, followed by an exploration of the techniques in relation to Congregationalist preaching styles practiced in the Connecticut River Valley, where Smith spent much of his childhood. Smith's older brother, Hyrum Smith, attended Moor's Indian Charity School, an institution created by Congregationalist preacher Eleazar Wheelock in conjunction with the formation of Dartmouth College. The preaching style taught at the school reflected the semi-extemporaneous style of the famous preacher, George Whitefield, and provides evidence of a Smith family member receiving formal instruction in preaching styles, delivery, and rhetorical performance.

Pines, Profits, and Popular Politics: Responses to the White Pine Acts in the Colonial Connecticut River Valley

2010 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Strother E. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Popular Resistance ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Early American ◽  
Connecticut River Valley ◽  
Connecticut Valley ◽  
Governmental Control

In the eighteenth-century Connecticut Valley, colonists from all walks of life steadily protested the White Pines Acts. Their experience with popular resistance to imperial authority—sometimes passive, sometimes violent—prepared valley inhabitants to reject British authority during the Revolution, and it shaped an early American antipathy toward centralized governmental control of natural resources.

Visions in a Seer Stone

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Performance Studies ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Early American ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
History Of ◽  
George Whitefield ◽  
Oral Composition

In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text within the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural contexts for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America. Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith’s process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.

The Hoe Complex of the Connecticut Valley

1946 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Development ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Volcanic Origin ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
Connecticut River Valley ◽  
Connecticut Valley

The aboriginal agriculturists discussed here lived in a somewhat secluded environment, the Connecticut River Valley from Bellows Falls to the Connecticut line. In this long-occupied territory, surrounded by high ridges of volcanic origin, heavily wooded, and watered by innumerable spring-fed streams, the cultural development of the inhabitants was apparently of a homogeneous nature. As late as 1636, when the English began to establish plantations throughout the valley, the natives were found united in a well-defined River Confederacy, with frequent intercourse maintained through river travel. While trade routes probably connected this section with many other parts of the country, cultural contacts had apparently persisted among the river tribes in spite of occasional raids of warlike groups from other regions.

The Captive’s Lament: Reinterpreting Rowlandson’s Narrative

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Mary Rowlandson ◽  
Connecticut River Valley ◽  
Indigenous Geographies

This chapter presents a nuanced close reading of The Sovereignty and Goodness of God . . . A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, framed within Indigenous geographies. Although Rowlandson conveyed a picture of a forbidding wilderness, she traveled through an intricately mapped network of Indigenous people and places, including the Nipmuc interior and the Connecticut River Valley. This chapter provides an alternative map and narrative of Rowlandson’s “removes” through Native towns and territories and elucidates the ways in which the stories of Weetamoo, James Printer, and Mary Rowlandson intertwined. Shortly after the raid on her town of Lancaster, Rowlandson was carried to the Nipmuc stronghold of Menimesit, where she encountered James and his extended family, and was given to Weetamoo, whom she followed deep into the interior of Nipmuc and Sokoki countries, as the saunkskwa sought protective sanctuaries for Native families who were evading colonial troops.

Jonathan Edwards's Change of Position On Stoddardeanism

1981 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
John F. Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Connecticut River Valley

When Jonathan Edwards was installed as assistant to his grandfather Solomon Stoddard at Northampton in 1727, he not only assumed the major pastoral responsibility for the largest congregation in western Massachusetts, but he also became coadministrator of the “lax” mode of admission to the sacraments that had prevailed at Northampton and throughout the Connecticut River Valley for some thirty years. This system granted both baptism and communion to all persons of age who had historical knowledge of the gospel and were of a “non-scandalous” life, on the grounds that all divinely established ordinances were capable of “begetting” faith. Although Stoddard did not originate the “lax” system, the practice was generally referred to as “Stoddardeanism” because from the time of his celebrated dispute with Increase Mather in 1700 (the so-called “Stoddardean controversy”) Stoddard had been its most systematic, persistent, and influential proponent in New England.

The government’s role in creating an innovation ecosystem: the Springfield Armory as hub in the Connecticut River Valley

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-579
Author(s):  
Robert C. Ford ◽  
Keenan D. Yoho
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Innovation Ecosystem ◽  
Connecticut River ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Ecosystems ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Connecticut River Valley

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, through the example of the Springfield Armory and its role in the development of interchangeable parts, the critical role of government in establishing a cluster of organizations that evolved into an innovation ecosystem primarily located in the Connecticut River Valley in the 1800s. Using the Springfield Armory example, we use the related but largely unjoined concepts of ecosystem and networks to show that these organizational forms are effective in driving innovation. Design/methodology/approach The design uses an in-depth analysis of the role of the Springfield Armory to explicate the joining of network and ecosystem theory as an early example of the importance of governmental funding and support for innovation. Findings The development of interchangeable parts in the American arms industry in the 19th century transformed manufacturing worldwide. At the heart of this transformation was the network of arms makers that developed in the Connecticut River Valley as a direct result of US Government investment and support. This network of arms makers evolved into an ecosystem of mutually reinforcing relationships as machine tool manufacturers benefited from an environment of free-flowing intellectual property, information and growing governmental demand for arms. The Armory illustrates the government’s role in initiating and sustaining clusters of innovation that otherwise might not have developed as quickly. Originality/value Much of the research on the role of government in creating innovation ecosystems and organizational networks is based on modern organizations. This use of the Springfield Armory in the early 1800s broadens the knowledge on how innovation ecosystems in conjunction with networked organizations can be created by governments serving the public good.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document