[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It was owned andpublished by two black businessmen, Samuel Cornish and John B.Russwurm.In its pages, Cornish and Russwurm emphasized theabolitionist cause, fought for racial equality, and put forward theirsupport for Christian ideals and democratic values.Their paper wasalso opposed to the back to Africa colonization movement.Thepaper attracted both black and white subscribers.Another important black abolitionist newspaper publisherwas Philip A.Bell.Bell published two abolitionist papers.The firstwas New York City s Weekly Advocate, which began in 1837.Thepaper s name was changed later that same year to the ColoredAmerican.(It was important to Bell that the word American be usedin his paper s name. We are Americans, he explained, coloredAmericans. *)To produce his papers, Bell relied on other black professionals,such as Charles B.Ray, a minister from New York.Ray was a man ofGod, editor, and businessman all wrapped into one.He was keenlyaware of the financial difficulties that plagued most abolitionistpresses in the United States.He wrote in 1838: If among thefew hundred thousand free colored people in the country to saynothing of the white population from whom it ought to receivea strong support a living patronage for the paper cannot beobtained, it will be greatly to their reproach. **Other such papers were produced during the 1840sand 1850s on the presses of black supporters, editors, andwriters.They included Henry Highland Garnet s Clarion,Stephen Myers s Northern Star and Freeman s Advocate,(continues) 80The Abolitionist Movement(continued)Samuel Ringgold Ward s True American (it was later re-named the Impartial American), and Thomas Van Rens-selaer s Ram s Horn, all of which were published in NewYork State.In Pittsburgh, Martin Delany published his blackabolitionist paper, the Mystery, during the 1840s.One American black newspaper publisher stood out above theothers during the decades preceding the Civil War.Among the mostfamous black men of the nineteenth century, Frederick Douglasspublished two extremely important newspapers, both dedicated tothe cause of antislavery first North Star and then Frederick DouglassPaper.Douglass s papers were published beginning in the late 1840sand early 1850s.After they became established, they were backedprimarily by a white abolitionist businessman, Gerrit Smith.Whereaswhite-published abolitionist papers often attracted readers from thecommunity of free blacks, Douglass s papers were read by blacks andwhites alike.Douglass s papers were highly professional publications,well crafted, edited, and printed.Douglass s papers, however, werenot established on the support of American abolitionists.Most of thefunds needed to begin publication of North Star were donated byantislavery advocates in Great Britain.*James Oliver Horton and Lois E.Horton, Slavery and the Makingof America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 97.**Darlene Clark Hine, The African-American Odyssey (Upper SaddleRiver, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2005), 196 197.UNDERGROUND RAILROADAlthough the vast majority of America s slaves during thenineteenth century chose to remain slaves and refused togive in to the lure of escape to safety in the North, somecould not remain confined by the institution.To leavethe harsh reality of a difficult master and safely reachthe Northern United States, and then, perhaps, Canada,not only was a difficult decision but also difficult toaccomplish.By the 1830s, the famous escape route for 81Politics of AbolitionismFugitive slaves used the Underground Railroad to escape to the freestates of the North and Canada.Pictured here is a stop along theUnderground Railroad in the basement of Joseph Hurlbutt s house inWilton, Connecticut
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]