45

HISTORICAL ANNOTATION 673

sympathetic free blacks and whites willing to help them learn. Phillips, Freedom's
Port, 163-67; Miller and Smith, Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery, 446.

62.28-29 if you give. . .take an ell] A paraphrase of the old English proverb "For
whan I gaue you an ynche, ye tooke an ell." An ell is an antiquated English unit of
length equal to forty-five inches. John Heywood, Proverbs and Epigrams of John
Heywood (1562; New York, 1967), 78.

65.23 Webster's spelling-book] The first version of the spelling book, A
Grammatical Institute of the English Language (1783), by Noah Webster (1758-
1843), a Connecticut teacher, editor, and Federalist politician, rapidly became the
standard spelling and pronunciation guide in the new nation. In 1788 the title became
The American Spelling Rook, and The Elementary Spelling Book in 1829. Harry R.
Warfel, Noah Webster, Schoolmaster to America (New York, 1936); Richard J. Moss,
Noah Webster (Boston, 1984); DAB, 19:594-97.

66.15-16 Knight, on Thames street] Nathaniel Knight (1778-1854) trained as a
printer in Salem, Massachusetts, and in 1800 moved to Baltimore, where he opened
a bookstore on Market Street. Knight was a prominent member of the community,
serving as a justice of the peace, a member of Washington Lodge No. 3 of the
Freemasons, an officer with the Charitable Marine Society of Baltimore, and a war-
den in Mount Calvary Episcopal Church. Knight lived at Fells Point at 23 Thames
Street 1827. Matchett's Baltimore Directory for 1827, 155; John L. Sanford, Studies
in Freemasonry (Baltimore,1924), 49-53.

66.17 "The Columbian Orator."] Boston schoolteacher and bookseller Caleb
Bingham (1757-1817) authored the Columbian Orator (1797), one of the first text-
books on English grammar and rhetoric published in the United States. It contained
short extracts from speeches by such famous orators as William Pitt, George
Washington, Charles James Fox, and Cicero, as well as plays and poems on the
themes of patriotism, education, and freedom. The Columbian Orator remained one
of the most popular textbooks of its kind in America through the 1820s. Bingham
himself contributed an essay on oratorical skills. "General Directions for Speaking,"
whose rules Douglass followed in his early years as a public speaker. NCAB, 8:19;
DAB, 2:273-74.

66.22-23 short dialogue between a master and his slave] The anonymous
"Dialogue between a Master and Slave" is a conversation between a master and slave
in which the slave is caught trying to run away for the second time. Caleb Bingham,
Columbian Orator ( Boston, 1827), 240-42.

66.32 quondam] Formerly.

67.4 O'Connor's mighty speeches,on the subject of Catholic Emancipation]
Although editions of Life and Times published during Douglass's lifetime attribute the
speech on Catholic Emancipation to Richard Sheridan (1751-1816), the Irish orator,
playwright, and politician who entered Parliament in 1780 and championed Irish and
other reform causes, the only speech extracted in Douglass's source, the Columbian
Orator, is "Mr. Sheridan's Speech against Mr. Taylor," which is not on Catholic