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Newspaper The Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate (Albany, N.Y.) 1842-18?? Northern star & freemen's advocate

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About The Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate (Albany, N.Y.) 1842-18??

The Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate was a weekly African American newspaper published from 1842 to 1843 in Albany, NY. The paper was operated by Stephen Myers, an African American abolitionist who is best known for helping to lead enslaved people to freedom through the New York Underground Railroad. The paper was published with the support of the Northern Star Association, an abolitionist group comprised of local free African Americans. John G. Stewart and Charles Morton edited the newspaper together until late 1842, when Stewart became the sole editor. The Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate was just one of Myers’s newspapers, as he also published the Elevator at the same time. Harriet Myers (née Johnson), wife of Stephen Myers, assisted with the newspaper’s publication and helped escaped enslaved people find freedom. According to historian Rich Mealey, who wrote the biographic entry on Stephen Myers for the website BlackPast, both the office of the Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate and the Myers home served as places of refuge for escaped enslaved people on the journey to freedom in Canada.

The Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate catered to the African American community of Albany and had agents from across the state delivering articles. In the February 3, 1842 issue, the Northern Star declared the paper’s intention to “contain the news of the day, both foreign and domestic, also advocate the cause of temperance and reform and the equal rights of man. It will particularly exert itself in the dissemination of education among the colored portion of community as the best means of improving their condition.” Several other New York newspapers publicly welcomed the publication of the Northern Star, including the Daily Advertiser and Albany Microscope, both of which the Northern Star quoted in its February 3, 1842 issue. The newspaper provided a little local news, primarily death announcements and meeting notices.

The Northern Star strongly supported education for African Americans, especially children, and believed that education could uplift the African American people and improve their quality of life. On February 10, 1842, the newspaper stated, “It cannot be expected that colored children will come up themselves, and be good and virtuous, and be a useful portion of society, good citizens, honest men and women, without being instructed in their early days the blessed advantages of such a course of life.” In the same issue, the article “CONDITIONS OF PEOPLE OF COLOR” celebrated the impact of education on African Americans already seen in the rising number of literary and debating societies and newspapers, believing that this would help advance the rights of the race.

The newspaper viewed temperance as a major concern for African Americans and advocated for education as a way to prevent intemperance. It published regular updates about local temperance meetings and issues related to the cause. On March 3, 1842, the newspaper published the article “ANNUAL REPORT of the New York State Temperance Society,” which celebrated the recent progress of temperance, stating, “. . .the early friends of the cause did not falter; the demoralizing, desolating and soul-destroying work of intemperance has been successfully resisted with the weapons and light and love, and much of the ignorance by which the subject was surrounded has been dispersed; intoxicating beverages are now almost universally conceded to be, not only useless, but poisonous and dangerous.”

In the December 8, 1842 issue, the Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate announced that it would switch to monthly issues until May 1843 because it could not obtain dues from subscribers. The Northern Star ceased publication in 1843, but Myers merged the newspaper with the True American in 1849 to form the Impartial Citizen, which was co-edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward, an African American abolitionist. This newspaper was published in Albany and ceased publication in 1851.

Note: The issues digitized for this newspaper were microfilmed for and sponsored by the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and Bell & Howell, a microfilming company, by the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service in 1947, compiling African American newspapers published in the U.S. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. For more information on the microfilm collection, see: Negro Newspapers on Microfilm, a Selected List (Library of Congress), published in 1953. While this collection contains selections from many U.S. newspapers titles, for further coverage, view a complete list of all digitized African American titles available in the Chronicling America collection.

Provided By: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate (Albany, N.Y.) 1842-18??

Other Title

  • Northern star & freemen's advocate

Dates of Publication

  • 1842-18??

Created / Published

  • Albany, N.Y. : [publisher not identified]

Headings

  • -  African Americans--New York (State)--Albany--Newspapers
  • -  African American newspapers--New York (State)--Albany
  • -  Albany (N.Y.)--Newspapers
  • -  African American newspapers
  • -  African Americans
  • -  New York (State)--Albany
  • -  United States--New York--Albany--Albany

Genre

  • Newspapers
  • African American newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began 1842.
  • -  Microfilmed by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 3 (Feb. 3, 1842).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 1, no. 32 (Jan. 2, 1843).

Medium

  • v

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83027104

OCLC Number

  • 10126298

ISSN Number

  • 2996-640x

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 Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate Albany, N.Y. -18??. (Albany, NY), Jan. 1 1842. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027104/.

APA citation style:

(1842, January 1) The Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate Albany, N.Y. -18??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027104/.

MLA citation style:

The Northern Star and Freemen's Advocate Albany, N.Y. -18??. (Albany, NY) 1 Jan. 1842. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83027104/.