A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Eighteenth Century by D. Christopher Gabbard;Susannah B. Mintz;

Author:D. Christopher Gabbard;Susannah B. Mintz;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

FIGURE 5.1 Title page of The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell. London: E. Curll, 1720.

FIGURE 5.2 Portrait of Duncan Campbell, Frontispiece of The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell. London: E. Curll, 1720.

According to The History, a “Learned Divine” from the University of Glasgow told the boy’s stepmother about the Oxford mathematician John Wallis, who claimed to have trained a non-speaking deaf child to read and write and to “utter some Sounds articulately with his Mouth” (Bond 1720: 33). Wallis, a brother-in-law of Daniel Defoe, was well known for his experiments in deaf education, and he had written a book explaining his methods. The Glasgow scholar acquired a copy of Wallis’ book and undertook the education of the young Campbell, who reportedly learned in this way to read and write, though not to speak:

In about Half a Year, the Doctor taught his little Dumb Pupil, First, to know his Letters; then to name any Thing whatsoever; to leave off some Savage Motions, which he had taken of his own accord, before to signify his Mind by, and to impart his Thoughts by his Fingers and his Pen, in a Manner as intelligible, and almost as swift thro’ the Eyes, as that is of conveying our Ideas to one another by our Voices, thro’ the Conduits and Port-Holes of the Ears. But in little more than Two Years, he could read and write as well as any body. (Bond 1720: 35–6)

Apart from the reference to Campbell’s “Savage Motions,” the narrator does not depict Campbell as animalistic, a notable departure from prevailing representations of deaf people. These “Savage Motions” were likely home signs, a system of gestural communication often developed by a deaf child isolated from other deaf people; they do not constitute a true sign language. Although he claims that Campbell “teaches other Deaf and Dumb to Write and Read, and Converse as well with any Body” (7), the narrator never describes him in the company of other deaf people. Campbell is frequently portrayed as employing “Finger-Talk” with his hearing wife and others, but it is unclear whether he was using sign language or simply finger-spelling. His apparent lack of connection to a deaf community suggests that his signs may not have constituted a shared, vernacular sign language.5

The narrator gives several detailed accounts of Campbell’s prognostications, each followed by alleged confirmation of their accuracy. These anecdotes are notable for their emphasis on the legibility of the facial expressions of both Campbell and his clients. For example, while meeting with a beautiful young woman, the narrator recounts, “he gazed afresh at her very eagerly for some time, and his Countenance during that time of viewing her seem’d to be ruffled by abundance of Disturbance and Perplexity,” leading spectators to believe that Campbell has fallen prey to her beauty and charm. Instead, he has foreseen that smallpox will disfigure her comely face, and “he begged to be excused, as his Pen might remain as Dumb and Silent as his Tongue, on that Affair” (131).

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