E Pluribus Unum
Because oratory was considered an important part of 19th century American
life, even very young children were expected to read, memorize, and
delivery speeches as part of their education. Schoolchildren
were expected to study speeches as a way of learning how to read,
write, and speak These anthologies also were used to instill patriotic
beliefs and American values in their readers.
On school exhibition days or on
special occasions such as the fourth of July, children were often
expected to recite or deliver inspirational speeches
In this picture
"Ceremonial at a Young Ladies' Academy" from 1910,
we can see a young woman exhibiting her skills at a school
event by doing a reading (or perhaps even delivering a speech).
Most readers for schoolchildren provided instructions
on such matters as elocution and articulation as well as a selection
of speeches. Many of the orations anthologized often with patriotic
or moral messages, as you can see from these examples:
Assessing the value of one reader, a reviewer
On the whole, the hackneyed phrase that "no library
should be without them" will apply with more force and truth to
these volumes than any we have seen for years. Placed in the hands
of every youth--more especially of those designed for public life--they
will stimulate a noble ambition, and teach the best means of attaining
a solid influence and reputation;--whie the wisest of thepresent
day may study them as models to be imitated, and drink fresh wisdom
from those fountains where the well-springs of true oratory have
been unsealed. --Review published in The North American Review, April
1858 of American Eloquence
value of learning to speak effectively was also impressed on
children through magazines and books. Both the contents listed
on the cover The Schoolmate from 1852 and the images
document the fact that learning to give speeches was a normal
part of life for even fairly small children.
To see more covers like these, visit "A
Small Gallery of Magazine Covers," at Pat Pflieger's
"Nineteenth Century Children and What They Read."
A particularly good illustration of the importance assigned to mastering
oratorical skills can be found in William Makepeace Thayer's novel,
The Bobbin Boy. This children's
book tells the story of a boy who uses his oratorical skills to rise out of poverty. The same lesson is communicated
by Frederick Douglass in My
Bondage and My Freedom; Douglass achieved prominence as an antislavery
speaker after educating himself using a copy of The Columbian Orator, a reader widely
used in the early part of the century.
Below you will find a collection
of "readers" that were used in nineteenth century American schoolrooms
and links to sites with resources related to this topic.
Advertisements for Elocution
Books, Rhetorics, and Readers--Backmatter of 1851 edition of Tocqueville's
Institutions and Their Influence (p.
For additional information on children's books and reading, see:
of the Child, An Exhibition at the Hugh M. Morris Library University
of Delaware Library