Text analysis
Jump to: Basic statistics | Demographic statistics | Sentiment and narrative shape
The digital edition of The Bow in the Cloud has rendered this 408-page printed anthology into machine-readable data that can be used for various analytical purposes.
Some of the following statistics derive from an analysis of a corrected plain text (txt) file of the printed book. Other statistics come from XML source data of the individual pieces themselves as well as the personography data (rendered in People mentioned)
Basic statistics
The published anthology is roughly 73,000 total words, with 9,917 unique word forms.Vocabulary Density: 0.135
Readability Index: 10.340
Average Words Per Sentence: 25.1
Below is a searchable table of the most frequent words (not including stop words).
Access the full Voyant visualisation below to explore the printed book yourself.
Demographic statistics
The anthology published 59 writers. As the People Mentioned page shows, all but four authors (A. H. Smith, J. R., Elizabeth Jones and one is anonymous and could not be identified) could be positively identified.In some cases, the anthology did not explicitly name the author of a piece but they have been identified through the analysis of their manuscripts. One of the tasks of curating this data was to undo the evident patriarchal elements of the book. The most prominent example is the Preface, which was authored by Mary Anne Rawson (she is not named anywhere in the book). Other examples: 'The Slave Ship', by 'S.' was written by Mary Sterndale; 'The Martyred Missionary's Grave', by 'T. R. T.' was written by Thomas Rawson Taylor; 'The Lot of the Slave', by 'R. C–––l' was written by Richard Cecil; and 'The Hope of the Slave' by E. was written by Elizabeth Walker. One important feature too is that authors' names are consistent: for example, in the book Miss Dinah Ball is also Dinah Townley (Dinah Ball married James Townley while the book was being compiled); 'Mrs. Josiah Conder' is named as Eliza Conder; 'Mrs. Henry Walker' is named as Elizabeth Walker.
Of the 59 writers, 43 could be identified as male authors and 14 female.
The religious affiliations are interesting: 14 authors were Congregationalists (which is not surprising because the editor Mary Anne Rawson was a Congregationalist); 14 Anglicans (many of whom were evangelicals, but some were not); 4 Methodists; 4 Baptist; 3 were Unitarian; 2 Presbyterians; 1 Moravian; and 1 Spiritualist (or Swedenborgian).
| Congregationalist | 14 |
| Anglican | 14 |
| Quaker | 8 |
| Methodist | 4 |
| Baptist | 4 |
| Unitarian | 3 |
| Presbyterian | 2 |
| Moravian | 1 |
| Spiritualist | 1 |
Religious affiliations were determined through biographical analysis and secondary sources that could positively identify religious affiliations. Admittedly, this is a difficult designation. In some (unambiguous) cases, authors were open about their affiliation and some were employed within a particular church. In other cases, we could infer religious affiliation through baptism records, burial records, associations with a particular milieu. It is also impossible in some cases to ascertain whether religious was strong or whether it was merely social. While these latter cases may seem tenuous, it is still worthwhile to consider how the religious context of a writer may have affected their views and rhetoric on slavery.
