Frederick Douglass' Monthly (1859-1863)

Frederick Douglass' Monthly (1859-1863)

738 pages of Frederick Douglass's monthly newspaper, "Douglass' Monthly." Issues dating from January 1859 to June 1863. This collection does not contain issues for September 1859, January-March 1860, May 1860, June 1862, and December 1862, May 1863. It is not clear if issues were published for these dates. Indications are that Douglass was having financial difficulties with the paper and issues for those dates may not have been published.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was an African American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader in the abolitionist movement. The popularity of his speaking engagements led to the publication of his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, American Slave (1845), the first of his three autobiographies, in which he told the harrowing tale of his childhood as a slave. Following a two-year (1845-46) lecture tour of Great Britain, Douglass returned to the United States, settled in Rochester, New York, and began publication of what would be the first of four newspapers: The North Star (1847-51), Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851-60), Douglass' Monthly (1859-63), and the New National Era (1870-74).

The Douglass' Monthly was the successor to Frederick Douglass’ earlier abolitionist papers: The North Star and the Frederick Douglass' Paper. This monthly publication was also devoted to the abolitionist movement and social reform. The motto of the paper was, "Freedom for all or chains for all." Many articles covered the Underground Railroad, state slave laws, lynchings, slave auctions, fugitive slave cases, the fate of John Brown, kidnapping of slaves and free blacks, and their return to slavery or being sold into slavery.

Once the Civil War broke out much attention in the Monthly was turned towards it. Douglass welcomed the war as an opportunity to end slavery and an opportunity for blacks to raise their status in the United States through military service. Through the Monthly, he recruited black Union soldiers for the African American Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers. His sons Lewis and Charles both served in this regiment and saw combat. The Monthly contemplated if the war would end slavery, criticism about the progress of the war and emancipation.

Story title subjects include:

A Story of the Underground Railroad

History of the Amistad Case

African Civilization Society

A Man Sells His Own Daughter

Man-Hunting in Pennsylvania

The Haiti Revolution

Mount Vernon a Slave Shamble

Burning of Negro Murders

A Mother in Prison for Attempting to Free her Children

Slave Hunters in New York

Capt John Brown not Insane

Jefferson's Slaves