A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816-1864

10. Debate Over a Deaf Commonwealth

10 DEBATE OVER A DEAF COMMONWEALTH
In the late 1850s, deaf people had a remarkable discussion in the pages of the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb about a proposal to create a separate deaf state in the West. The idea was not altogether new. Years before, when Congress gave land in Alabama to the American Asylum, Laurent Clerc had suggested selling part of it to cover the school’s operating expenses and retaining the rest as a location where deaf people could settle. That did not occur. Similarly, in the 1830s, Edmund Booth and twelve other graduates of the American Asylum considered purchasing land out west so they might continue to live close to each other. However, members of the group found jobs in different states, and the project died. Neither of these antecedents had the scope or ambition of the 1850s plan. The debate was ignited by John Jacobus Flournoy, a deaf man from Georgia. The son of a prosperous slaveowner, Flournoy briefly attended the University of Georgia, leaving when other students made him the target of ridicule. He also studied at the American Asylum, although he never actually enrolled. A rather eccentric person, Flournoy seldom cut his hair, wore a rain161 162 EVENTS AND ISSUES William Chamberlain, 1897 coat in all weather, and assumed the appearance of poverty even though he was well off. At one point, he committed himself to a mental institution, but soon released himself when he decided he was not going insane. He supported polygamy; when his first wife became an invalid, he tried to marry a young teen. Despite such bizarre behavior, Flournoy was an important advocate for deaf people. He published dozens of pamphlets on deaf education and other topics at his own expense. He lobbied for the establishment of the Georgia School for the Deaf and, later, a national deaf college . Yet none of his activism gained as much attention as his call for a separate deaf commonwealth. In 1855, Flournoy issued a circular suggesting that deaf people should petition Congress for land in the West. Those who desired could migrate there and establish their own state. All the citizens DEBATE OVER A DEAF COMMONWEALTH 163 would be deaf. They would manage their own affairs, away from ‘‘rejections and consignments to inferior places’’ by hearing people. Flournoy asked William W. Turner, then the principal of the American Asylum, for his opinion. Turner wrote that the plan was ‘‘beautiful in theory’’ but impractical. Deaf people would be unlikely to want to leave their friends and relatives, he said. Moreover , it would be difficult to keep the community deaf, since most children of deaf couples would be hearing. Finally, Turner denied that deaf people suffered from prejudice, saying instead that they had natural limitations. ‘‘You would not send a deaf and dumb man to Congress or to the Legislature of a State; not for the reason that he was deficient in intelligence and education, but because his want of hearing and speech unfits him for the place,’’ he wrote.1 Flournoy responded with typical fervor, asserting (in the first letter below) that deaf people did commonly endure discrimination . He had experienced rejection firsthand. Driven by what his cousin called a ‘‘burning thirst for office,’’ Flournoy ran for government positions several times without success.2 When the Annals published Turner’s and Flournoy’s letters, they struck a nerve with readers across the nation. Several deaf people sent in responses, which are excerpted here. Edmund Booth and John Carlin weighed in against Flournoy’s proposal, arguing that it was in deaf people’s interest to live scattered among the hearing. Others, such as William Chamberlain and P. H. Confer , expressed support, suggesting that some deaf people would be happier living among others who shared the same language and worldview. 1. William W. Turner, letter to J. J. Flournoy, reprinted in ‘‘Scheme for a Commonwealth of the Deaf and Dumb,’’ American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 8 (1856): 118, 119. 2. E. Merton Coulter, John Jacobus Flournoy: Champion of the Common Man in the Antebellum South (Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1942), 15. 164 EVENTS AND ISSUES In 1858, Laurent Clerc addressed the controversy at a meeting of the New England Gallaudet Association of Deaf-Mutes. Clerc, the most well-known deaf person in America, was seen by many as the first person to have proposed...