Themes – Newspapers

 United States

Title:

The African Methodist Episcopal Church Magazine

Title:

African Observer

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Observer

Title:

Aliened American

First edition of the Aliened American – April 9, 1853

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm
http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=AA1
http://research.udmercy.edu/find/special_collections/digital/baa/item.php?record_id=1573&collectionCode=baa

Title:

Alton Observer

Although Illinois was a free state and Alton was an important Underground Railroad location, the city also had a large pro-slavery faction, including slave catchers and others dependent on slaves. The former earned money by their capture of slaves’ escaping across the Mississippi from Missouri. Southern Illinois had numerous slavery supporters, where farmers used slave labor for cultivation.

On November 7, 1837 abolition opponents mobbed Gilman & Godfey’s warehouse where Lovejoy had hidden his printing press, and gunfire was exchanged between them and his supporters. Lovejoy and his supporters killed some in the mob and wounded others. While they were trying to prevent the burning of the warehouse, Lovejoy and Royal Weller were shot; Lovejoy died immediately. The mob threw the press out the window and into the river. Publication of the Alton Observer ended after Lovejoy’s murder, but his brother Owen Lovejoy became a leader of the abolitionists in Illinois and carried on the struggle. Elijah Lovejoy was considered a martyr (“a martyr on the Altar of American Liberty”) by abolitionists across the country.

Wood engraving of the November 1837 pro-slavery riot in which
Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery mob.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Observer#
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Lovejoy
http://altonweb.com/history/civilwar/index.html

Title:

The Anglo-American

Title:

The Anti-Slavery Bugle

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anti-Slavery_Bugle
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/

Title:

The Christian Herald

Sources:
http://www.the-christian-recorder.org/

Title:

The Christian Recorder

In 1852 the name of the Christian Herald was changed to The Christian Recorder. The first editor of The Christian Recorder was the Reverend M. M. Clark, who was one of the first college graduates in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Clark was a graduate of Jefferson College and was considered to be one of the best-educated men in the A.M.E. Church. He wrote that the Recorder’s focus would be religion, morality, science and literature.

The Christian Recorder focused on religious news, but a lot of the paper was devoted to secular news. Articles were written about education, voting rights, equality, and other secular issues that affected the lives of black Americans. The Christian Recorder was a forum to address slavery, classism, as well as racism. Articles were written by black women and about black women, and the paper also addressed issues related to families.

The Christian Recorder was a strong and vocal opponent to slavery. It repeatedly addressed the biblical and moral issues of slavery and encouraged and nurtured black consciousness. Following the Civil War, the Recorder encouraged its readers to be diligent in protecting their families from whites who wanted to harm the newly freed slaves and regularly addressed the issue of families separated by the evils of slavery and published articles that tried to provide information that would assist in the reuniting of family members.

The Christian Recorder has been a faithful voice for the disenfranchised and the oppressed. The publication addressed various issues confronting the black community and has been an advocate for justice and equal rights. During Reconstruction, it advocated education for all citizens and was an activist for higher education and especially for an educated ministry.

Sources:
http://www.the-christian-recorder.org/

Title:

The Cincinnati Daily Commercial (later The Cincinnati Commercial)

Cincinnati Daily Commercial, dated April 29th, 1865

Sources:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037036/
http://www.loc.gov/item/scsm001225/

Title:

The Clarion

Title:

The Colored American (New York)

Initially published under the name The Weekly Advocate, New York’s Colored American was a weekly newspaper whose length was four to six pages. It circulated in free black communities up and down the northern seaboard.

The main focus of The Colored American was the moral, social, and political elevation of free colored people as well as the peaceful emancipation of slaves. The newspaper had a wide spread of subscribers, and employed agents in various cities, as well as abolitionists, for its marketing needs. The paper also received help from African-American churches and local abolition societies by way of fund drives and donations. Occasionally, the newspaper received cash infusions from prominent white allies. All of the donations, fund drives and supplements helped the paper to publish 38 articles and survive through 1841. Thanks to the subscribers, the interesting articles and the extra funding sources, The Colored American became an important paper of its time.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colored_American
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Cornish

Title:

The Colored American (Washington D.C.)

The Colored American included a regular column called “City Paragraphs” that highlighted events in the nation’s capital and routinely featured articles on religion, politics, education, military affairs, and black fraternal organizations. The paper distinguished itself by its use of original reporting rather than relying on boiler-plate, filler material taken from other publications. Like other papers, however, it included advertising, much of it geared to black consumers.

The paper ran editorials and political cartoons that championed improved social conditions in the black community and expanded rights for African Americans. Although it held a reputation for political independence, the Colored American was actually staunchly Republican. Cooper allied himself and his paper with Booker T. Washington, and the publisher looked to the famous black educator for financial assistance. Another financial backer was lecturer and activist Mary Church Terrell, a noted African American civil rights advocate who wrote a column for the paper titled “The Women’s World,” under the pseudonym Euphemia Kirk.

The front page of the Nov. 25, 1899 edition of The Colored American newspaper.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colored_American
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83027091/

Title:

Commonwealth

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm
http://who2frit41.securesites.net/juliawardhowe.html

Title:

Daily True Democrat

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm
http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=DTD

Title:

The Elevator

The Emancipator advocated gradual emancipation and colonization of slaves, reprinted the proceedings and addresses of the Manumission Society of Tennessee, and published letters, articles, and poetry related to the abolition of slavery. In his newspaper, Embree celebrated slave owners who, like himself, had freed their slaves, and he recounted the “pitiful conditions” of many slaves in order to expose the institution and inhumane slave owners.

The annual subscription rate of the Emancipator was one dollar per year, and it had reached a circulation of over two thousand by October 1820, with deliveries made to Boston and Philadelphia, as well as in the South. Embree mailed copies of his paper to the governors of all the southern states, but it was not well received. Many southerners erroneously thought Embree was an agent of northern abolitionist groups, sent to Tennessee to stir up trouble with his publication.

The paper ceased publication with Embree’s illness in the fall of 1820; the last edition was published on October 31. It was then sold to Benjamin Lundy in 1821, when it became The Genius of Universal Emancipation (see below)

Sources:
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=432
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emancipator

Title:

Emancipator and Journal of Public Morals

Ruggles worked as a conductor on the Underground Railroad (1835-38) and was one of those who helped Frederick Douglass when he arrived in New York. Douglass later recalled: “I remained but a short time in this distressed situation. I was relieved from it by the humane hand of Mr. David Ruggles, whose vigilance, kindness, and perseverance, I shall never forget. I am glad of an opportunity to express, as far as words can, the love and gratitude I bear him.”

Ruggles was also secretary of the New York Vigilance Society, an organization that helped defend African Americans in court.

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm

Title:

Frederick Douglass’ Paper (previously The North Star)

In 1851 Douglass broke his friendship with Garrison, who had originally convinced him to join the abolitionist movement. They disagreed about whether it was necessary to have a separate “black-oriented” press and, more importantly, whether violence should be used to end slavery. Douglass strongly believed in a political resolution, while Garrison, though a pacifist, came to believe that violence might be necessary if emancipation were not achieved quickly.

In November 1859 Frederick Douglass’ Paper permanently ceased publication after Douglass left the United States for a lecture tour in England.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_(anti-slavery_newspaper)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/852011/The-North-Star

Title:

Free Enquirer

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/436270/Robert-Dale-Owen#ref252897

Title:

Freedom’s Journal

Freedom’s Journal was similar to other ante-bellum reform papers in that its pages consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and “colonization,” a concept which was conceived by members of The American Colonization Society, a mostly white pro-emigration organization founded in 1816 to repatriate free black people to Africa. Initially opposed to colonization efforts, Freedom’s Journal denounced slavery and advocated for black people’s political rights, the right to vote, and spoke out against lynchings.

Freedom’s Journal provided its readers with regional, national, and international news and with news that could serve to both entertain and educate. It sought to improve conditions for the over 300,000 newly freed black men and women living in the North. The newspaper broadened readers’ knowledge of the world by featuring articles on such countries as Haiti and Sierra Leone. As a paper of record, Freedom’s Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements. To encourage black achievement it featured biographies of renowned black figures such as Paul Cuffee, a black Bostonian who owned a trading ship staffed by free black people, Touissant L’Ouverture and poet Phyllis Wheatley. The paper also printed school, job and housing listings.

At various times the newspaper employed between 14 to 44 agents to collect and renew subscriptions. One of its agents, David Walker from Boston, eventually became the writer of “David Walker’s Appeal,” which called for slaves to rebel against their masters. Freedom’s Journal was soon circulated in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.

Russwurm became sole editor of Freedom’s Journal following the resignation of Cornish in September 1827, and began to promote the colonization movement. The majority of the newspaper’s readers did not support the paper’s radical shift in support of colonization, and in March 1829, Freedom’s Journal ceased publication. Soon after, Russwurm emigrated to the American Colonization Society of Liberia, and became governor of the Maryland Colony. Cornish returned and attempted to revive the newspaper in May 1829 under the new name “The Rights of All,” but the paper folded after less than a year. Freedom’s Journal’s two-year existence, however, helped spawn other papers. By the start of the Civil War over 40 black-owned and operated papers had been established throughout the United States.

Volume 1, No. 3 23rd March 1827

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom%27s_Journal
http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/newbios/nwsppr/freedom/freedom.html

Title:

Genius of Universal Emancipation

Elihu Embree established the Manumission Intelligencier in 1819 which became The Emancipator in 1820. In 1821 the paper was bought by Benjamin Lundy and renamed Genius of Universal Emancipation, running from 1821 to 1839 under Lundy’s editorship. Lundy’s contributions reflected his Quaker views, condemning slavery on moral and religious grounds but advocating gradual emancipation and the removal of Negroes from the United States. Lundy moved the paper to Jonesboro, Tennessee in 1823, and then established himself in Baltimore, Maryland in 1824, where most of the paper’s run would be published.

In 1829, Lundy recruited the young William Lloyd Garrison to join him in Baltimore, Maryland and help him edit the paper. Garrison’s experience as a printer and newspaper editor allowed him to revamp the layout of the paper and free Lundy to spend more time traveling as an antislavery speaker. Garrison, who had been converted to abolitionism by one of Lundy’s northern speaking tours, initially shared Lundy’s gradualist views, but, while working for the Genius, he became convinced of the need to demand immediate and complete emancipation. Lundy and Garrison continued to work together on the paper in spite of their differing views, agreeing simply to sign their editorials to indicate who had written it.

One of the regular features that Garrison introduced during his time at the Genius was “the Black List,” a column devoted to printing short reports of “the barbarities of slavery—kidnappings, whippings, murders.” One of Garrison’s “Black List” columns reported that a shipper from Garrison’s home town of Newburyport, Massachusetts—one Francis Todd—was involved in the slave trade, and that he had recently had slaves shipped from Baltimore to New Orleans on his ship Francis. Todd filed a suit for libel against both Garrison and Lundy, filing in Maryland in order to secure the favor of pro-slavery courts. The state of Maryland also brought criminal charges against Garrison, quickly finding him guilty and ordering him to pay a fine of $50 and court costs. (Charges against Lundy were dropped on the grounds that he had been traveling and not in control of the newspaper when the story was printed.) Garrison was unable to pay the fine and was sentenced to a jail term of six months. He was released after seven weeks when the antislavery philanthropist Arthur Tappan donated the money for the fine, but Garrison had decided to leave Baltimore and he and Lundy amicably agreed to part ways. Garrison returned to New England, and soon began his own abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. After Garrison’s departure, Lundy mounted a failed attempt to relocate the newspaper to Washington, DC, and eventually ceased publication in 1835 in order to move to Philadelphia and begin a new newspaper. In 1839, Lundy revived the Genius and printed one more issue before he died of a fever on August 22, 1839.

Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839)

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_of_Universal_Emancipation
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Benjamin_Lundy

Title:

Granite Freeman

The Granite Freeman is best remembered for the publication of remembrances of Oney Judge concerning her servitude in the household of George Washington, from whom she escaped in 1796.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Freeman

Title:

The Herald of Freedom

The Herald of Freedom, Friday, January 26, 1855

Sources:
http://www.newspapers.com/title_2280/the_herald_of_freedom/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035443/

Title:

Human Rights Journal

Title:

The Imperial Citizen

Title:

The Indianapolis Freeman

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Freeman

Title:

The Kentucky Gazette (originally Kentucke Gazette)

John Bradford (1749-1830)

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradford_(printer)

Title:

The Liberator

Title:

Louisville Daily Democrat

Title:

Louisville (Daily) Journal

Sources:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027471/
http://kdl.kyvl.org/catalog/xt718911p768_1

Title:

Louisville Public Advertiser

Title:

Manumission Inteligencier

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumission_Intelligencier
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=831

Title:

Mirror of Liberty

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm
http://www.blackvoicenews.com/more-sections/portraits-of-success/42452-mirror-of-liberty-founded-1839.html

Title:

Mirror of the Times

Sources:
http://www.blackvoicenews.com/more-sections/19-portraits-of-success/42451-mirror-of-the-times-founded-1857.html

Title:

The Mystery

Title:

National Anti-Slavery Standard

The newspaper’s founder, the American Anti-Slavery Society, was founded in 1833 to spread their movement across the nation with printed materials. The National Anti-Slavery Standard and The Liberator became the official newspapers of the society. The paper featured writings from influential abolitionists fighting for suffrage, equality, and most of all emancipation. One activist that was featured most was Charles Lenox Redmond, a free elite African American minister who travelled the country speaking out against slavery. Other abolitionists included Frederick Douglass who gave powerful antislavery testimonies.

The paper had various editors: N. P. Rogers, 1840–1841; Lydia M. Child, 1841–1843; D. L. Child, 1843–1844; S. H. Gay, 1844–1854; Oliver Johnson, 1863–1865; A. M. Powell, 1866-1870. One of the paper’s editor, Lydia Maria Child, published a book entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by a colored woman, Harriet Jacobs, under the pseudonym, Linda Brent. This book was written to the northerners to reveal the horrors and tragedies that enslaved colored people had to face. A letter from the author, “Linda Brent,” was published in the paper to stress the validity of her non-fiction novel. She gave the paper a literary flare that educated readers were drawn to.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Anti-Slavery_Standard
http://www.slideshare.net/S7w5Xb/a-36673641

Title:

National Enquirer

Title:

The National Era

Title:

The National Reformer

It appeared 12 times a year in 16-page issues, circulating mostly on the eastern seaboard, with agents in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Its moral-uplift and integrationist message was not always received well by Blacks interested in Black pride and anti-slavery, and when the AMRS folded in the late 1830s, the paper ended publication. Whipper, who had prospered in the steam-cleaning laundry and lumber business, continued to be active in Black organizations, eventually abandoning his early integrationist and anti-colonization opinions. After the Civil War he moved to Philadelphia and became an officer in the Freedmen’s Savings Bank.

Sources:
http://www.blackvoicenews.com/more-sections/19-portraits-of-success/42455-national-reformer-founded-1838.html

Title:

National Watchman

Title:

New York Tribune

Title:

The North Star

In the first issue of The North Star, Douglass explained his reasons for establishing an African American-owned newspaper. He emphasized that he did not want to seem ungrateful to people such as William Lloyd Garrison, a white abolitionist who published the antislavery paperThe Liberator. However, he claimed that it is common sense that those who suffer injustice are those who must demand redress and, thus, African American authors, editors, and orators must have their own paper with which to share their voices.

Published weekly, The North Star was four pages long and sold by subscription at the cost of $2 per year to more than 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe, and the West Indies. The first of its four pages focused on current events having to do with abolitionist issues. An occasional feature, “The Den of Villany” was a forum for Douglass to comment on discrimination in American society. Pages two and three included editorials, letters from readers, articles, poetry, and book reviews, while the fourth page was devoted to advertisements. In the paper, Douglass wrote with great feeling about what he saw as the huge gap between what Americans claimed to be their Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. Douglass was also a staunch supporter of education for African Americans and equal rights for all, including women.

Despite Douglass’s efforts, the paper was not a financial success. He earned extra money lecturing and even mortgaged his home in 1848 to keep the newspaper going. By 1851, financial difficulties caused him to merge The North Star with the Liberty Party Paper, a newspaper published by the abolitionist Gerrit Smith. The resulting publication was known as Frederick Douglass’ Paper (see entry above).

June 2, 1848 Issue

Frederick Douglass

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_(anti-slavery_newspaper)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/852011/The-North-Star

Title:

The Northern Star (later The Genius of Freedom)

Title:

Paducah American

Title:

Palladium of Liberty

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm

Title:

Pennsylvania Freeman

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm

Title:

The People’s Press

Title:

The Philanthropist

Title:

Pittsburgh Saturday Visitor

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm

Title:

The Rams Horn

Title:

The Rights of All

Title:

St. Cloud Visitor

Sources:
http://spartacus-educational.com/USASnewspapers.htm

Title:

St. Louis Observer

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Observer

Title:

The Slave’s Friend

Title:

The Weekly Advocate

Sources:
Hudson J. Blaine, ‘Encyclopedia of The Underground Railroad’. Published by McFarland & Company Inc, 2006.

Title:

Provincial Freeman

Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey was born on October 9, 1823, into a prominent black family in Wilmington, Delaware, the eldest of thirteen children. When she was ten years old, her parents moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she attended a Quaker school for 5 years. Early in her life she became dedicated to the promotion of self-reliance and independence among black Canadians. She helped found the Provincial Freeman and became the first black North American female editor and publisher, with the purpose of transforming black refugees into model citizens. In 1856 she married Thomas F. Carey of Toronto, and the couple lived in Chatham, Canada, until his death in 1860. Mary Carey ultimately moved to Washington, D.C. where she opened a school for black children and in 1870 she became the first black woman lawyer in the United States.

The Provincial Freeman was devoted to Anti-Slavery, Temperance and General Literature, and was affiliated with no particular Political Party. Its prospectus stated, “it will open its columns to the views of men of different political opinions, reserving the right, as an independent Journal, of full expression on all questions or projects affecting the people in a political way; and reserving, also, the right to express emphatic condemnation of all projects, having for their object in a great or remote degree, the subversion of the principles of the British Constitution, or of British rule in the Provinces.” In July, 1856, the office was seized for debt and publication was suspended until Nov. 25, when issue number 16 was published. The volume was closed with issue number 49, August 22, 1857.

Sources:
http://www.accessible-archives.com/collections/african-american-newspapers/provincial-freeman/
http://www.archives.com/experts/perez-marjory/early-african-american-and-anti-slavery-newspapers.html
Hudson J. Blaine, ‘Encyclopedia of The Underground Railroad’. Published by McFarland & Company Inc, 2006.

Title:

Voice of the Fugitive

The Voice of the Fugitive was the first anti-slavery paper published in Canada by people of African descent. It was a very important means of communicating with Underground Railroad supporters, and with the general public. Published every other Thursday just across the Canadian border from Detroit, this short-lived paper was the work of Henry C. Bibb. The paper was issued from 1851 to end of 1853. Published in the community of Sandwich (now Windsor, Ont.), The abolitionist newspaper promoted the British colony of Canada West (Ontario) as a destination for runaway slaves and as a vehicle to find other family members.

The paper was published biweekly at a subscription rate of one dollar per year. A network of agents in the U.S. and Canada collected from subscribers and sent the money to Henry and Mary so they could run the newspaper.  The Voice of the Fugitive used its popularity to promote a cause its editor and publisher made repeated appeals for: the Homes for Refugees fund. This was first announced in the paper on February 12, 1852. The contents of the paper also included poetry, news from around the world, and stories of slaves and fugitive slaves from throughout North America.

Sources:
Hudson J. Blaine, ‘Encyclopedia of The Underground Railroad’. Published by McFarland & Company Inc, 2006.

http://tubman.info.yorku.ca/educational-resources/breaking-the-chains/toronto/henry-and-mary-bibb/