In 1983, while at the Library of Congress, working my way carefully through the Black Abolitionists papers in search of materials for my book, What If I Am a Woman: The Rhetoric
of Sisterhood and Struggle, 1830-1970, I discovered a lecture titled "Orators and Oratory" by William G. Allen, an African-American professor of rhetoric and belle lettres at Central College, McGrawville, New York. The lecture was delivered before the Dialerian Society of New York on June 22, 1852. Because of its historical value, I believe it should be available as a data base for all scholars, particularly those interested in history and public address. As far as we know, Allen was the first black in the United States to leave a record of intellectual probing into the operation of the ancient art of oratory. Thus scholars who venture to study ancient Greek and Roman history and the mind of nineteenth-century America, should find Allen's deft mastery of these periods delightfully insightful and useful.
