“THE SALVATION OF THE NEGRO”

Abstract

This chapter examines the arguments that Turner makes in favor of emigration. In promoting emigration as an option for African American well-being, Turner offered a third way in African American rhetorical discourse in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was through Turner’s prophetic pessimism and bearing witness to the ills faced by many African Americans during this time that gave many African Americans a sense of pride and the necessary courage to face whatever came their way. Though he knew he was fighting a losing cause, it is out of these arguments that Turner helps to lay the foundation of the Black Radical tradition.