Rhetorically Constructed Africana Mothering in the Antebellum: The Racial Uplift Tradition of Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Mary Ann Shadd Cary's rhetoric on mothering is expressed in her writings on racial uplift. Her discourse on mothering (and fathering) resembles a type of Africana mothering that Patricia Hill Collins has termed (178). In following case study, I argue that Shadd Cary's othermothering is rhetorically constructed, rather than hands-on experience that Collins describes. Typical othermothers care for children whose blood mothers are not in a position to parent properly. However, I contend that Shadd Cary's rhetorical othermothering is designed not only to assist black parents with raising their children in a literal sense, but also to othermother adult elites (parents) on how to be citizens of newly integrated Canadian society in figurative sense. The advice Shadd Cary gives to black elites on how to be citizens can be extrapolated from advice she gives on mothering and fathering. These arguments--both literal and figurative--run parallel. How are you going to parent? How are we going to be new citizens? A response to these questions is what Waters would call a new narrative based on primary sources and new scholarship about old events (365). Critical theory scholarship has been very useful in examining nineteenth century black rhetoric and practice. Gordon asserts that discursive studies on abolishing slavery, confronting racism, and effecting black liberation have been very valuable in this regard, although some of early studies tended to be more descriptive than (10-11). Campbell notes that, until recently, there has been a dearth of scholarship on rhetoric of marginalized groups. However, new trend in rhetorical scholarship is analyses of role of rhetoric in black struggle (Gordon 11; Condit and Lucaites 1993). For example, Gordon's analysis of rhetoric of nineteenth century Black nationalism is critical rhetorical scholarship [that demands a] deepening of its social analysis, a more reflexive posture in its critique, and a broadening of its scope (11). Critical analyses of nineteenth century women's discourse, such as Marilyn Richardson's study of discourse of Maria W. Stewart, Shirley Logan's studies of persuasive nineteenth century African American women, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell's analysis of rhetoric of early black women such as Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Church Terrell, and Carla Peterson's analysis of African American women's speeches and writings, have served as illuminating studies of black women's rhetoric. Thus, contemporary analysis of Shadd Cary's nineteenth century rhetoric on motherhood is as powerful a means of understanding her othermothering as analysis of parenting in analogous case of eighteenth century metaphor the Founding Fathers. I maintain that metaphor of motherhood applies to black leaders as effectively as metaphor of fatherhood applies to white leaders. After defining typical othermothering and noting that present literature on othermothering does not mention resemblance between what is typically described as othermothering and rhetorically constructed othermothering, I argue that similarities are such that rhetorically constructed Africana othermothering does represent a different type of othermothering than that described by Collins (178). I contend that just as typically defined othermothers nurture, protect, and educate children to ensure their survival in black community, Shadd Cary's editorials, articles, and published correspondence in newspaper she founded and edited enhance welfare of black elites in newly integrated society of Canada. Africana Othermothering in Literature Typically, Africana othermothering refers to same caring for children that black blood mothers would provide if they were able. Collins has defined Othermothering as form of mothering that occurs when black women, who may or may not be relatives of blood mothers, assist in caring for welfare of black children beyond their own families (178). …

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