Freedom's Call: The Persuasive Power of Mercy Otis Warren's Dramatic Sketches, 1772–1775

Oh! My poor country!. . .—When will it be,When high-soul'd honor beats within our bosoms,And calls to action—when thy sons like heroes,Shall dare assert thy rights, and with their swordsLike men, like freemen, force a way to conquestOr on thy ruins gloriously expire.—

—Cassius, from The Adulateur, in The Massachusetts Spy, April 23, 1772

In this excerpt from a fictitious theatrical production, Patriot writer Mercy Otis Warren created a unique persuasive message that helped polarize attitudes toward royal government in Massachusetts and energize support among those who were tired of protest. It was the second of five such pieces that appeared in Boston newspapers between 1772 and 1775. The first was couched as an advertisement in The Massachusetts Spy and mimicked the format of other reports and advertisements for concerts and entertainments at home and abroad that commonly appeared in the newspapers. The ad, however, included a novel feature: "As a specimen of the work, we have extracted the following passages" (March 26, 1772). Readers were treated to a sneak preview, something like today's movie trailers, including two scenes from a hypothetical performance, which featured the main villain, Rapatio, and his key aide, Hazlerod, in one scene, followed by an excerpted speech by the hero, Cassius. In this sketch and the others to follow the characters and events directly reference the newspaper content in which they are embedded. Fictitious characters with obvious real-life counterparts engage in fictitious speech acts that explain and amplify "real" events reported by the newspaper. As a result, a radical narrative of villains and heroes is created that becomes nearly impossible for opponents to refute. In this essay, I analyze Warren's "dramatic sketches" (Mercy Warren Papers) from the perspective of her intended audience of newspaper readers, arguing that these distinctive rhetorical texts are best understood and appreciated if read within the context of their newspaper publication.¹

Over the past thirty years or so, a fair amount of attention has been paid to the life and works of Mercy Otis Warren. One of a handful of women who can claim the label "Founding Mother" (Roberts 37), she was at the center of the radical anti-British movement in Massachusetts.² Scholars have noted Warren's fine intellect and wide-ranging correspondence, commended her work as poet and historian, speculated and theorized about her authorial status. Warren's dramatic literature, however, with the exception of two tragedies written toward the end of her career, is generally considered more propaganda than art.³ Given this assessment, it is curious that there is little, if any, serious and sustained rhetorical analysis of Warren's work. Although Carol Berkin concludes that "Mercy Otis Warren was among the most famous and effective propagandists of the prewar period" (First Generations 171), she does not offer any systematic rhetorical analysis in support of this claim. More specifically, no one has considered all five dramatic sketches in sequence as they would have been read by her newspaper audience, as advertisements or previews. As a result, the power and significance of these dramatic sketches has been misunderstood and often underestimated. However, if we approach the sketches from a rhetorical standpoint, that is, if we read them from the perspective of her intended audience within the specific context of their newspaper publication, we begin to understand how Warren's appropriation of the dramatic form advanced a radical narrative that mobilized support for their cause.⁴

The series began with two sketches from The Adulateur published in March and April 1772 in The Massachusetts Spy. They were followed by two sketches from The Defeat published in May and July 1773 in The Boston Gazette. Both newspapers published a two-act farce, The Group, in January 1775. Looking at the sketches in hindsight, outside their newspaper context, readers see texts that announce themselves as dramatic literature excerpted from a larger play script. Their purpose, however, is clearly persuasive. Evaluation of the sketches' merit often reflects the problematic relationship between form and function. For example, Maud Hutcheson...