This study offers an analysis of the distinctive rhetorical features in the persuasive discourse of 19th-century black women. The author develops each chapter around a feature of public address as best exemplified in the oratory of a particular woman speaker of the era.

To analyze the rhetoric of Victoria Matthews, she applies Carolyn Miller's modification of Lloyd Bitzer's concept of the rhetorical situation. The discourse of women associated with the black Baptist women's movement and those participating in college-affiliated conferences is also examined. The book includes an appendix with little-known speeches and essays by Anna Cooper, Selena Sloan Butler, Lucy Smith, Mary Cook, Adella Hunt Logan, Victoria Matthews, Lucy Laney and Georgia Swift King.