Download or read book Words, Like Fire written by Valerie C. Cooper and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2012-02-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maria Stewart is believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to give public political speeches. In Word, Like Fire, Valerie C. Cooper argues that the religious, political, and social threads of Maria Stewart's thought are tightly interwoven, such that focusing narrowly on any one aspect would be to misunderstand her rhetoric. Cooper demonstrates how a certain kind of biblical interpretation can be a Rosetta Stone for understanding various areas of African American life and thought that still resonate today.