This dissertation re-imagines the history of the U.S. language disciplines by examining language education thought and practice in a key city, Philadelphia, in a formative period, 1750–1830. I first examine the ways in which “tacit English monolingualism,” as Bruce Horner and John Trimbur call it, has been at work as a foundational assumption in histories of the discipline of English. Then, working with texts from several of Philadelphia’s rich local archives, I examine the varieties of language philosophies and practices in three key communities in the early national period: the Germans, the Quakers, and the African Americans. I begin my investigation into each community by identifying the archival texts –many of which have never been examined by scholars –in which members of the community argue for particular forms of language learning. The Germans, for example, campaigned for a German-language college well into the nineteenth century; the Quakers grappled with the place of classical language teaching in the context of Friends’ educational philosophies. African American minister Richard Allen explored the intersection of Methodist and African American language practices. I offer close readings of these texts in their cultural and historical contexts, engaging in emic analysis of the writers’ own language epistemology. Finally, I theorize how the text, and by extension the teaching practice it engendered, may be understood as a multilingual production. I conclude by proposing a model that I call rhetorical multilingualism, which synthesizes linguistic and rhetorical practices with close consideration of the contexts in which local communities make meaning for themselves. This perspective not only allows us to re-envision the history of language diversity in America, which has long been imagined as a unidirectional drive towards English-only, but also to imagine contemporary teaching that engages multi- and monolingual students in global contexts.