Gallaudet Classics in Deaf Studies

A Series Edited by John Vickrey Van Cleve

Gallaudet University Press

Washington, DC 20002

© 2000 by Gallaudet University.

All rights reserved. Published 2000

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A mighty change : an anthology of deaf American writing, 1816–1864 / Christopher Krentz, editor.

p. cm.—(Gallaudet classics in deaf studies)

Includes index.

ISBN 1-56368-098-X (alk. paper)—ISBN 1-56368-101-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Deaf, Writings of the, American.   2. Deaf—United States—History—19th century—Sources.   3. American literature—19th century.   4. Deaf—Literary collections.   I. Krentz, Christopher.   II. Series.

PS508.D43 M54     2000

810.8'09208162—dc21               00-060976

The cover photograph is from a letter that Laurent Clerc wrote to the Rhode Island State Legislature on May 28, 1818.

The photographs in chapter 3 are reprinted from Tales of the Deaf and Dumb, With Miscellaneous Poems by John Burnet (Newark, N.J.: Benjamin Olds, 1835), with the permission of the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library. The photograph in chapter 1 of Charles Wilson Peale’s 1822 portrait of Laurent Clerc is reprinted with the permission of the American School for the Deaf. John Carlin’s self-portrait in chapter 4 is reprinted with the permission of Patricia Carlin Friese. All other photographs appear courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.