Frederick Douglass’ Paper

Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Ed. Frederick Douglass. Rochester, N. Y.: 1851-1860. 10 vols.

The Library of Congress notes: "In June 1851, The North Star merged with the Liberty Party Paper (Syracuse, New York), under the title, Frederick Douglass' Paper. Still published in Rochester with volume and issue numbering continuing from The North Star, Douglass remained editor. Former Liberty Party Paper editor, John Thomas, was listed as corresponding editor. Gerrit Smith, the wealthy abolitionist and staunch Liberty Party supporter, encouraged the merger. Smith, who had provided some funding for The North Star, provided more financial support for Frederick Douglass' Paper, as Douglass joined Smith as a political abolitionist. A letter from Smith appeared on page 3 of the first issue of the Paper on June 26, 1851: 'Much joy is expressed that you have settled down upon the anti-slavery interpretation of the federal Constitution.' This viewpoint meant a complete break from William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society and their support of nonvoting, pacifism, and the rejection of the Constitution as a proslavery document.

In 1859, Douglass added a monthly as a supplement to the weekly paper, but by mid-1860, Douglass' Monthly replaced the weekly publication, as he increasingly focused on the impending Civil War and, during the war, on recruitment and acceptance of black troops. Douglass only ended the monthly publication in August 1863, when promised an army commission by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton after separate meetings with Stanton and President Lincoln about unequal pay and poor treatment of black troops. The commission never materialized, but 16 years of newspaper publication ended" (https://www.loc.gov/collections/frederick-douglass-newspapers/about-this-collection/).

 

Last updated on April 27th, 2024

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