TOW #9: Written - "Coatesville" by John Jay Chapman

Coatesville, Pennsylvania is where it all occurred. One night, a black man was lynched and burned to death. In commemoration, John Jay Chapman delivers a speech called “Coatesville”. In his speech, he uses imagery and symbolism in order to evoke emotion and action against the inequality of African-Americans in the early 1900's.

Chapman creates a vivid visualization for his audience. Though at the time, his speech during the memorial was only heard by two others, it has a long lasting effect today. The imagery his diction paints is gory and gruesome; this reflects the nature of the Jim Crow laws and segregation. Chapman describes the event, which was white Americans torturing “a man chained to an iron bedstead, burning alive, thrust back by pitchforks when he struggled out of it…hundreds of persons watching this awful sight and making no attempt to stay the wickedness” (para. 2). The imagery is effective for Chapman’s purpose. His objective is to shed light on the disgusting and evil nature of lynching and inequality. Chapman’s imagery establishes pathos and portrays the event to seem inhumane for at the time, lynching was a normal event.

Stressing how the incident in Coatesville is a symbol for America’s mentality, Chapman uses the lynching in Coatesville to persuade the audience that America must change its ways. He specifically mentions that he “seemed to get a glimpse into the unconscious glimpse of this country” (para. 2) and realized “that this great wickedness that happened in Coatesville is not the wickedness of Coatesville nor of to-day. It is the wickedness of all America and of three hundred years” (para. 7). Chapman directly explains the relationship between Coatesville and America. The event of Coatesville symbolizes the inequality of African-Americans. The direct link and symbolism between Coatesville and the wickedness of America helps Chapman relay the importance of changing America’s wickedness and inequality.

Chapman’s speech was effective. With an urgent tone created by symbolism and the vivid imagery, Chapman guides the audience to rethink America’s mentality of segregation and inequality (which is what Chapman described as wickedness).