North Star

Frederick Douglass began publication of North Star, a four-page weekly newspaper, in Rochester, New York, on December 3, 1847. This was the third antislavery paper at the time; the others were William Lloyd Garrison's the Liberator (Boston) and the National Anti-Slavery Standard (New York City). Douglass's paper differed from the others in that it focused not only at abolition, but also promoted women's rights and suffrage. Martin Delany was listed as coeditor until July of the following year and remained a regular contributor; other black correspondents for the paper included James McCune Smith, William J. Wilson, Samuel Ringgold Ward, and William Wells Brown. William C. Nell worked as printer for the paper, and his name was listed on the masthead until June 23, 1848.

By the middle of 1849, North Star had four thousand subscribers, but finances remained a problem and depended on contributions and fund-raising projects. By 1851, Douglass had aligned himself with the Liberty Party and became an advocate of political action as the means of abolishing slavery. This led to a break with Garrison and Nell, who were steadfast in advocating moral persuasion as the only proper course of action. In 1851, Douglass merged North Star with Liberty Party Paper as Frederick Douglass' Paper, subsidized by Gerrit Smith, a wealthy white abolitionist. Frederick Douglass' Paper ceased publication in July 1860.

North Star not only furnished an outlet for the views of Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists, but its headquarters in Rochester were an important way station on the Underground Railroad, offering assistance to more than four hundred individuals.

See also Abolition; Douglass, Frederick; Liberator, The ; Underground Railroad

Bibliography

Danky, James P., and Maureen E. Hady, eds. African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Ripley, C. Peter, et al, eds. The Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 4. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

robert l. johns (2001)