John Jacobus Flournoy (1808–1879), a graduate of the

American School for the Deaf The American School for the Deaf (ASD), originally ''The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf'', is the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States, and the first school for children with disa ...

, is best remembered as an advocate for a

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

state and for his resistance to black abolition in the United States. Living near Athens, Georgia throughout his life. Besides being deaf himself, Flournoy also suffered from occasional bouts of mental instability, and was frequently institutionalized. Flournoy proposed that deaf people obtain a government land grant to establish a colony "where all of its citizens would be deaf and the chief means of communication would be

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

." Flournoy's proposals were not widely accepted even among deaf leaders of the day. Most argued that such a colony could not flourish because of the low percentage of deaf children born to deaf parents. Flournoy was also a driving force in the creation of the

Georgia School for the Deaf Georgia School for the Deaf (GSD) is a public residential school for the deaf. GSD provides comprehensive education and services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students between the ages of three and twenty-two. Located in Cave Spring, Georgia, Cave S ...

and a proponent of a national college for the deaf. He also notably championed the expulsion of all African-American slaves from the United States on grounds of their supposed inferiority to the white race. Several letters from Flournoy to the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass were printed in the latter's paper, entitled ''The North Star.'' In these letters, Flournoy excoriated free blacks for their presumed arrogance to southern and northern whites, charging them with resistance to God's divine plan for the African race to remain inferior, and advising them to move permanently to the colony of Liberia.''The Frederick Douglass Papers: 1842-1852.'' Edited by John R. McKivigan. Yale University Press, 2009. pg. 360-365.

References

1808 births 1879 deaths Deaf culture in the United States Deaf activists Deaf people from the United States {{US-activist-stub