"The Columbian Orator"

The Columbian Orator is a collection of speeches, dialogues, sermons, and poems published in 1797 and edited by Caleb Bingham. It was used as a textbook in American classrooms during the nineteenth century and--most importantly--profoundly influenced Frederick Douglass. According to historian Gregory P. Lampe's Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845, The Columbian Orator gave the abolitionist orator the rhetorical skills that he needed to argue against the insitution of slavery. The website "E Pluribus Unum Project" contains some highlights as to the text's influence, especially on Douglass.

(Photo Courtesy of and featured in the digital library titled Nineteenth Century Schoolbooks)