Language Ideology in the Paxton Pamphlet War

Abstract

abstract:This essay examines the literary texts of Pennsylvania's 1764 Paxton pamphlet war, giving close attention to the linguistic representations through which vying parties attempted to claim superiority in the Anglo-American sociopolitical hierarchy. Competing ethnic and political groups published creative literature (including poetry, dialogues, a farce, and a narrative) disparaging their opponents' British virtue and status by lampooning their literary and grammatical acuity and emphasizing their deviation from "acceptable" spoken English. Through analysis of the pamphlet war's portrayals of Quaker, American Indian, and Scots-Irish Presbyterian language, this essay demonstrates that the interrelated issues of language, virtue, and British identity were central to the concerns of provincial Pennsylvanians in 1764.