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