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"Intelligent Union of Black With White": Frederick Douglass and the Rochester Press, 1847-48

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From: Journalism History
Date: 20050401
Author:Fee, Frank E Jr

On December 3, 184 7, the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass published the first issue of the North Star in Rochester, New York. This article examines his earliest moments as a journalist by studying the responses of the city's white dailies to his new career and his newspaper in late 1847 and early 1848. The comments of the city's four dailies, along with accounts of a printers' dinner in January 1848 celebrating Benjamin Franklin's birthday, showed respect for Douglass' talents as an editor but wariness over his Garrisonian abolitionism. The stories suggested that a tension existed ...

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