Digital Collections -> Pathfinders -> Many Roads to Freedom -> Locally Published Abolitionist Newspapers

MANY ROADS TO FREEDOM:
LOCALLY PUBLISHED ABOLITIONIST NEWSPAPERS

In 1819, Elihu Embree established the first American anti-slavery newspaper, Manumission Intelligencer, in Jonesborough, Tennessee. In 1820, Embree began a second paper, The Emancipator, and the following year Benjamin Lundy purchased and renamed this publication The Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison of Boston began publishing The Liberator, which was to become one of the most famous antislavery newspapers in the country. In Rochester, local abolitionists also began to publish their own newspapers. Among these were the Rights of Man, published beginning in 1834 by William C. Bloss and Rev. Thomas James for the Anti-Slavery Society, and Rochester Freeman, begun in 1839 by Myron Holley, and Northern Freeman, published in 1848 by Butts & Merrell. However, these early local papers had trouble maintaining readership and did not last long.

In 1847, Frederick Douglass arrived in Rochester and began to publish the North Star. This was to become one of the most famous and successful abolitionist papers of all. In 1851, the name of the paper was changed to Frederick Douglass' Paper.

Here is a sampling of some of these early local papers. They have been scanned to preserve the original look of the newspapers, so these pdf files may take a while to download. However, once downloaded, you can save them to your computer and re-open them to read offline. You can also search them by keyword and use the zoom feature for easier reading.

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View The Rights of Man Vol. I [pdf, 33.3 MB] (Contains: No. 9 April 26, 1834 ; No. 10 May 10, 1834 ; No. 11 May 24, 1834 ; No. 12 June 7, 1834 ; No. 13 June 21, 1834 ; No. 14 July 4, 1834.) Please note: to keep the file size manageable, this item was not scanned using OCR, and is therefore not searchable. The individual issues below ARE searchable.

View The Rights of Man Vol. I individual issues:

No. 9 April 26, 1834 [pdf, 20.2 MB] No. 13 June 21, 1834 [pdf, 17.6 MB]
No. 10 May 10, 1834 [pdf, 19.8 MB] No. 14 July 4, 1834 [pdf, 19.2 MB]
No. 11 May 24, 1834 [pdf, 19.4 MB] End of Volume [pdf, 19.2 MB]
No. 12 June 7, 1834 [pdf, 19.2 MB]  


View The North Star Vol. I [pdf, 31.3 MB] and The North Star Vol. III [pdf, 29.3 MB] complete.

View The North Star Vol. 1 and The North Star Vol. III individual pages:

Vol. I, Page 1 [pdf, 7.3 MB] Vol. III, Page 1 [pdf, 7.3 MB]
Vol. I, Page 2 [pdf, 7.5 MB] Vol. III, Page 2 [pdf, 7.3 MB]
Vol. I, Page 3 [pdf, 7.6 MB] Vol. III, Page 3 [pdf, 7.6 MB]
Vol. I, Page 4 [pdf, 8.7 MB] Vol. III, Page 4 [pdf, 7.0 MB]


View Frederick Douglass' Paper Vol. VIII [pdf, 51.2 MB] and Frederick Douglass' Paper Vol. XII [pdf, 35.8 MB] complete.

View Frederick Douglass' Paper Vol. VIII and Frederick Douglass' Paper Vol. XII  individual pages:
Vol. VIII, Page 1 [pdf, 12.6 MB] Vol. XII, Page 1 [pdf, 8.8 MB]
Vol. VIII, Page 2 [pdf, 12.4 MB] Vol. XII, Page 2 [pdf, 8.7 MB]
Vol. VIII, Page 3 [pdf, 13.2 MB] Vol. XII, Page 3 [pdf, 8.7 MB]
Vol. VIII, Page 4 [pdf, 12.8 MB] Vol. XII, Page 4 [pdf, 9.2 MB]


View The Northern Freeman Vol. I [pdf, 34.8 MB] complete.

View The Northern Freeman Vol. I individual pages:
Vol. I, Page 1 [pdf, 8.2 MB]
Vol. I, Page 2 [pdf, 8.2 MB]
Vol. I, Page 3 [pdf, 8.5 MB]
Vol. I, Page4 [pdf, 8.1 MB]