Highlights from the Gates Collection of African American History and Culture

Frederick Douglass' Paper, v. 5 no. 5: January 22, 1852.

"In my imagination I already saw myself wielding my pen as well as my voice in the great work of renovating the public mind, and building up a public sentiment, which should send slavery to the grave, and restore to ‘liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ the people with whom I had suffered."

Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery to become a leader of the abolitionist movement.  A gifted orator, he traveled through the Northeast and Europe, speaking out against slavery before eventually settling in Rochester, New York, a center of abolitionist activity.  In 1847, he began publishing a newspaper, the North Star, that served as a platform for discussing developments in the abolition movement.  In 1851, the name was changed to Frederick Douglass’ Paper, to avoid confusion with a number of other papers with "Star" in the title.

Verso of first page, v. 5 no. 5: January 22, 1852.

In addition to abolitionist issues, the paper addressed current events, international politics, scientific discoveries, and literature. This issue evaluates and finds plausible a theory that a subterranean river connects the Great Lakes; features an article by an “Englishman” warning against the “heterogeneous jumble of despotism” that will result from Louis Napoleon's reign; reprints a natural remedy for a dog bite that was tested on a sheep; advises young men to steer clear of chewing tobacco, which induces a “dangerous precocity” as well as “softening and weakening of the bones;” and, on the final page, prints an Aesop fable and a poem by Goethe.