From Boston's strident Liberator to Frederick Douglass's North Star, more than forty newspapers were founded in the United States in the decades before the Civil War with the specific aim of promoting emancipation. In Abolition and the Press, Ford Risley discusses how these fiery publications played a vital role in keeping the issue of slavery in the public eye. Reaching an audience that only grew when the papers became objects of controversy and targets of violence in both the South and the North, the abolitionist press continued to provide a needed platform for discourse even after some mainstream publications took up the call for emancipation. Its legacy endured as contemporary reform writers and editors continue to champion the press as a tool in the fight for equality and civil rights.
This examination of nineteenth-century journalism explores the specific actions and practices of the publications that provided a true picture of slavery to the general public.
This examination of nineteenth-century journalism explores the specific actions and practices of the publications that provided a true picture of slavery to the general public. From Boston's strident Liberator to Frederick Douglass' North Star, the decades before the Civil War saw more than forty newspapers founded with the specific aim of promoting emancipation. Not only did these sheets provide a platform for discourse, but they also gave slavery a face for a wider audience. The reach of the abolitionist press only grew as the fiery publications became objects of controversy and targets of violence in both South and North. These works kept the issue of slavery in the public eye even as mainstream publications took up the call for emancipation, as the nation went to war, up to the end of slavery. Their legacy has endured, as dedicated reform writers and editors continue to view the press as a vital tool in the fight for equality.
Preface
One
Beginnings of Abolitionist Press
Two
Growth and Controversy
Three
Press Under Attack
Four
Wrestling with Questions
Five
New Publications
Six
Mainstream Press Joins Struggle
Seven
War & Emancipation
Eight
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Ford Risley is the head of the department of journalism at the College of Communications at Penn State University where he has taught since 1995. He is the author of The Civil War: Primary Documents on Events from 1860 to 1865. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.
