North Star (anti-slavery newspaper)

June 2, 1848 issue

February 22, 1856 issue

For other newspapers named North Star, see North Star (disambiguation)#Newspapers

North Star was a nineteenth-century anti-slavery newspaper published in the United States by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The paper commenced publication on December 3, 1847 and ceased as the North Star in June 1851 when it merged with Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party Paper (based in Syracuse, New York) to form Frederick Douglass' Paper.^[1] The North Star's slogan was "Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren."^[2]

Inspiration

In 1845, Frederick Douglass was first inspired to publish the North Star after subscribing to The Liberator, a weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison. The Liberator was a newspaper established by Garrison and his supporters founded upon moral principles.^[1] The North Star title was a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves trying to reach the Northern states and Canada: Follow the North Star.^[3] 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 concerning abolitionist issues.^[4]

The Garrisonian Liberator was founded upon the notion that the Constitution was fundamentally pro-slavery and that the Union ought to be dissolved. Douglass disagreed but supported the nonviolent approach to the emancipation of slaves by education and moral suasion.^[5] Under the guidance of the abolitionist society, Douglass became well acquainted with the pursuit of the emancipation of slaves through a New England religious perspective.^[6] Garrison had earlier convinced the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to hire Douglass as an agent, touring with Garrison and telling audiences about his experiences in slavery. Douglass worked with another abolitionist, Martin R. Delany, who traveled to lecture, report, and generate subscriptions to the North Star.^[3]

Editorial perspective and breadth

Slavery
Contemporary Child labour Conscription Debt Forced marriage Bride-buying Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Peonage Penal labour Sexual slavery
Historical Antiquity Ancient Rome Babylonia Ancient Greece Topics and practices Atlantic slave trade Middle Passage Arab slave trade Ghilman Mamluk Saqaliba Aztec Blackbirding Byzantine Empire Coolie Corvée labor Field slaves in the United States House slaves Kholop Medieval Europe Panyarring Thrall Serfs History Russia Slave raiding Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship
By country or region Africa Contemporary Africa Slavery on the Barbary Coast Barbary slave trade Slave Coast Angola Chad Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Somalia South Africa Sudan Seychelles Americas Americas indigenous U.S. Natives Brazil Lei Áurea Canada Caribbean Barbados Code Noir Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek Latin America Puerto Rico Trinidad United States colonial maps female partus penal labor Slave codes interregional Human Trafficking Virgin Islands Asia Bhutan China Booi Aha Laogai India Debt bondage Chukri System Japan comfort women South Korea Yankee princess North Korea Vietnam Yemen Australia and Oceania Blackbirding in Australia Human trafficking in Australia Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe Sex trafficking in Europe British Isles Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain colonies Sweden Middle East and North Africa Iran Libya Human trafficking in the Middle East Ottoman Empire
Religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Islam 21st century Judaism
Opposition and resistance Timeline Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Compensated emancipation Freedman manumission Freedom suit Abolitionists Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution
Related Common law Indentured servant Unfree labour Fugitive slaves laws Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project Treatment in U.S. breeding court cases Washington Jefferson Adams Lincoln 40 acres Freedmen's Bureau bit Wage slavery Emancipation Day

Douglass's thoughts toward political inaction changed when he attended the National Convention of Colored Citizens, an antislavery convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1843. One of the many speakers present at the convention was Henry Highland Garnet. Formerly a slave in Maryland, Garnet was a Presbyterian minister who supported violent action against slaveholders. Garnet's demands of independent action addressed to the American slaves remained one of the leading issues of change for Douglass.

During a nineteen-month stay in Britain and Ireland, several of Douglass’ supporters bought his freedom and assisted with the purchase of a printing press. With this assistance Douglass was determined to begin an African-American newspaper that would engage the anti-slavery movement politically. On his return to the United States in March 1847, Douglass shared his ideas of the North Star with his mentors. Ignoring the advice of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Douglass moved to Rochester, New York to publish the first edition. When questioned on his decision to create the North Star, Douglass is said to have responded,

"I still see before me a life of toil and trials..., but, justice must be done, the truth must be told...I will not be silent."^[7]

In covering politics in Europe, literature, slavery in the United States, and culture generally in both The North Star and Frederick Douglass' Paper, Douglass achieved an unconstrained independence to write freely on topics from the California Gold Rush to Uncle Tom's Cabin to Charles Dickens's Bleak House.^[8]

See also

• Abolitionist publications

References

Bibliography

• Ira Berlin, "Who Freed the Slaves; Emancipation and Its Meaning", in Blight and Simpson ed. Union and Emancipation; Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era (Kent, Kent State University Press, 1234), p121.

External links

• The North Star, The North Star: Online Collection, Lavery Library, St. John Fisher College.
• "Our Paper and Its Prospects", The North Star, December 3, 1847.

Underground Railroad People William L. Chaplin Levi Coffin Richard Dillingham Calvin Fairbank Thomas Garrett Laura Smith Haviland Daniel Hughes William Cooper Nell Harriet Forten Purvis Robert Purvis John Rankin Hetty Reckless Gerrit Smith William Still Harriet Beecher Stowe Charles Turner Torrey Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman Delia Webster Places List of Underground Railroad sites houses churches Levi Coffin House Bialystoker Synagogue Bilger's Rocks Wilson Bruce Evans House Cyrus Gates Farmstead Sites in Indiana Allen Chapel Town Clock Church F. Julius LeMoyne House National Underground Railroad Freedom Center John Rankin House Gerrit Smith Estate John Freeman Walls Historic Site Events Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Pearl incident Jerry Rescue Uncle Tom's Cabin Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp Thirteenth Amendment Topics Songs of the Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad Records Abolitionism in the United States Abolitionism opponents of slavery African-American opponents publications Fugitive slaves Fugitive slave laws 1850 Quilts Slave catcher See also: Slavery in the United States and Slavery in Canada