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Newspaper The Charleston Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1867-1868

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About The Charleston Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1867-1868

The weekly Charleston Advocate (1867-68) was one of a number of short-lived newspapers from the predominantly black Low Country region of South Carolina in the Reconstruction era (1865-77). Like many newspapers published for an African American audience, the Advocate faced a number of obstacles, including limited funds, opposition from local whites, and a low circulation due to high illiteracy rates among African Americans, most of whom were former slaves. Although it lasted only a year, the Advocate captured the hopes and frustrations of African Americans and reformers in the South in the years immediately following the end of the Civil War.

Two Methodist clergymen, Timothy Willard Lewis and Alonzo Webster, established the Charleston Advocate with financial support from Boston-based philanthropist Lee Claflin and his son, Massachusetts Governor William Claflin. Lewis and Webster both were Northerners. Webster had previously published the Vermont Christian Messenger ; Lewis had served as a missionary to the freedmen on the Sea Islands. The first issue of the Advocate appeared on Saturday, February 16, 1867. At its masthead appeared the golden rule: “As yet would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.” Webster served as editor, and Lewis and Benjamin Franklin Randolph, a former chaplain to the United States 26th Colored Infantry Regiment, served as associate editors.

The Advocate combined international and national news, domestic advice, marriage and obituary notices, and news of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and South Carolina Republican Party. Notices of the activities of the Baker Biblical Institute in Charleston (Webster and Lewis taught there) were also prominently featured in the Advocate’s pages. Its editors defended so-called scalawags and carpetbaggers and chastised local Democrat newspapers, the Charleston Mercury and the Columbia Daily Phoenix, and the national Republican Party alike for their indifference to the needs of black Southerners.

On October 16, 1868, three white gunmen assassinated Benjamin Randolph, who had recently been elected South Carolina State Senator, in broad daylight in Abbeville County. The Advocate ran a number of memorials to Randolph, transferred its subscription lists to the Atlanta Methodist Advocate, and folded shortly thereafter. Timothy Lewis and Alonzo Webster went on to establish Claflin University, a historically African American Methodist college in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1869. In doing so, they continued to promote the ideas of racial equality and opportunity they had articulated in the Advocate.

Provided By: University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Charleston Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1867-1868

Names

  • Webster, A. (Alonzo), editor
  • Randolph, B. F., editor
  • Lewis, T. W. (Timothy Willard), editor

Dates of Publication

  • 1867-1868

Created / Published

  • Charleston, S.C. : H.J. Moore

Headings

  • -  African Americans--South Carolina--Charleston--Newspapers
  • -  Charleston (S.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  African Americans
  • -  South Carolina--Charleston
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Charleston--Charleston

Genre

  • Religious newspapers
  • Newspapers
  • African American newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began with Feb. 16, 1867 issue; ceased in 1868.
  • -  Editors: A. Webster, February 23, 1867-; B. F. Randolph, February 23-, 1867; T. W. Lewis, February 23-, 1867.
  • -  Microfilmed by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 2 (Feb. 23, 1867).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83025784

OCLC Number

  • 9803264

ISSN Number

  • 2166-1707

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Charleston Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1867 to 1868. (Charleston, SC), Jan. 1 1867. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83025784/.

APA citation style:

(1867, January 1) The Charleston Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1867 to 1868. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83025784/.

MLA citation style:

The Charleston Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1867 to 1868. (Charleston, SC) 1 Jan. 1867. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83025784/.