SASL Newsletter - Spring 2018 Issue Issue 9 - Spring 2018 | Page 13

In his book Fighting in the Shadows, Harry
G. Lang relates a number of stories in which ASL
comes into play. We find a reporter observing
Edward Miner Gallaudet signing the poem
“Sheridan’s Ride” with his students, deaf
students in various schools debating in ASL
various topics related to the war, and only a few
weeks before President Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated, the deaf Missouri poet Laura
Redden was teaching signs to John Wilkes
Booth in order that she could mentor him in
writing love sonnets.
Lang’s groundbreaking study of deaf
people’s experiences in the Civil War is based on
meticulous archival research. This visually rich
volume reveals how both ordinary and
extraordinary deaf civilians lived during this
transformative period in American history. Lang
documents in detail the participation of deaf
soldiers in combat and non-combat roles, stories
of men whose personal tests of fortitude and
perseverance have not been previously expl ored.
Lang pieces together hundreds of stories,
accompanied by 160 historical images, to reveal
a powerful new perspective on the Civil War—
how deaf civilians and soldiers put aside
personal concerns about deafness, in spite of the
discrimination they faced daily, in order to pursue
a cause larger than themselves.
Lang, H. G. (2017). Fighting in the shadows: Untold stories of deaf people in the civil war. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
To purchase the book, visit the website at www.gupress.gallaudet.edu
The Power of ASL
13
Spring 2018 – Issue 9