Q: How did the
newspaper cover slavery?
A: Freedom’s Journal exposed the cruelties of slavery and
the ways that enslaved people fought their oppression. Articles by the editors and contributors
countered common proslavery arguments and the assumptions—scriptural, economic,
and political—on which they were based. A significant number of articles explored judicial decisions that
considered slavery’s reach onto “free” soil when slaves accompanying traveling
masters to non-slave states sued for their freedom, from the 1772 British Somerset case to cases from various regions of the United
States that explored the power of slavery throughout the nation and set the
stage for more well later known decisions such as the Dred Scott case.
Q: Did the
newspaper help free slaves?
A: For obvious
reasons, Freedom’s Journal did not publicize specifics about
the underground channels for assisting fugitives. However, Russwurm offered help in the
newspaper to runaways by notifying them about locations where they would be
unsafe because of slave hunters, the devious methods used by those who would capture
them, and the names of captors and their accomplices. Freedom’s Journal also
publicized efforts by individuals and organizations who aided free African
Americans who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery or whose loved ones had
suffered this fate, allowing African Americans and white allies to seek
assistance in specific cases and free particular victims. Slaves could also be freed through the
controversial (but sometimes effective) method of purchasing their freedom, and
such initiatives were publicized in the newspaper, such as the campaign to free
the children of Reverend George Erskine, a Presbyterian minister and former
slave who had been manumitted in 1815, and the poet George Moses Horton. (Although at least some of Erskine’s children
obtained freedom, the effort to buy the liberty of Horton failed.)
Q: How did Freedom’s Journal influence American abolition and the
history of American journalism?
A: Freedom’s Journal established connections among
African-American leaders in different cities; created a force of writers and
activists whose impact on American abolition was crucial, such as David Walker
and Samuel Cornish, who went on to edit other newspapers and served on both the
Board of Managers and the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery
Society; and publicized the arguments against colonization and slavery and for
black freedom and civil rights that convinced white reformers such as William
Lloyd Garrison to support abolition. Because one of the goals of <I>Freedom’s Journal<I> was to
encourage debate on important subjects, we discover in the pages of
<I>Freedom’s Journal<I> discussions of issues that white
abolitionists did not take up until subsequent decades, such the role of women
role in reform and in the public sphere, the use of physical resistance and
extralegal action, and the reliance on or rejection of political
institutions.
Q: What is the
significance of Freedom’s Journal for African-American
newspapers of today?
A: Freedom’s
Journal established the power of the black press as a tool in building
community and fighting oppression. Numerous newspapers can be considered the legacy of Freedom’s
Journal, from Frederick Douglass’s North Star, which
began publication in 1847, to the Chicago Defender, which
from 1905 to today has played a key role as a source of information and a forum
for discussions of issues relating to people of color. As various historians and journalists have
noted, the issues raised in Freedom’s Journal have been
discussed in the African-American press in various forms since its publication,
and the principles upon which it was founded remain relevant. As did Freedom’s Journal,
African-American newspapers continue to report stories that are ignored in the
mainstream white-dominated media, to interpret news in ways that make it
relevant to people of color, to educate and empower, and to critique the nation
and challenge it to live up to its ideals.
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