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Newspaper Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1837-1948 May sometimes be called: Southern advocate

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About Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1837-1948

The weekly Charleston Southern Christian Advocate carried the news for South Carolina Methodists through periods of denominational and regional division and reconciliation. Born out of a desire for a Methodist newspaper without abolitionist overtones, the Advocate served as witness to the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844, the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1846, and the reunification of the national and southern bodies in 1939. The Advocate mixed news of revivals and foreign missions with notices of marriages and warnings against the evils of "worldly amusements" like gambling, drinking, and attending theaters.

When the first issue of the Southern Christian Advocate appeared on June 24, 1837, its longevity was anything but assured. Editor William Capers doubled as bookkeeper; the publishers contracted with local printers as they had no press of their own. The Advocate grew along with the Methodist Church in South Carolina, however, acquiring a printing press in 1843 and even earning a profit in 1848. Francis Asbury Mood contributed historical sketches of the Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1856. Joseph Cross penned a series of travel letters titled "European Impressions" the following year.

On the eve of the Civil War, the Southern Christian Advocate claimed 11,725 subscribers. The war, however, brought lean times. By 1864, the Advocate had been reduced to two pages; a subscription cost $10.00 (double its cost from the previous year). The paper suspended publication between April and August 1865. Following the war, John William Burke published the Advocate out of Macon, Georgia, along with the short-lived Macon Mirror of the Times. Upon its return to South Carolina in 1878, the Southern Christian Advocate was variously published in Anderson, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Orangeburg, and Spartanburg. The Jonesboro Wesleyan Christian Advocate took over reporting on Methodist Church affairs for Georgia.

The editors of the Southern Christian Advocate and the Greenville Baptist Courier enjoyed a friendly rivalry. On August 2, 1923, the Baptist Courier shared news of a competition for subscribers. Each paper represented a train, each renewal subscription represented a mile, and each new subscription represented two miles. The Advocate editors boasted, "The boll-weevil, the pessimist and the pestiferous may try to get ahead of us both this time, but there is not a loose tap in all of our machinery." The Courier editors replied, "May we both arrive on circulation summit, October 26, each attain[ing] the high objective, with the Courier engine just a little ahead."

In 1948, the South Carolina Conference replaced the Southern Christian Advocate with a periodical titled the Columbia South Carolina Methodist Advocate. The Southern Christian Advocate continues in spirit to the present as the Columbia South Carolina United Methodist Advocate.

Provided By: University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston, S.C.) 1837-1948

Other Title

  • May sometimes be called: Southern advocate

Names

  • Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Dates of Publication

  • 1837-1948

Created / Published

  • Charleston, S.C. : Published by a committee of ministers for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1837-1948.

Headings

  • -  Methodist Episcopal Church, South--Newspapers
  • -  Methodists--Southern States--Newspapers
  • -  Southern States--Newspapers
  • -  Methodists
  • -  Georgia--Augusta
  • -  Georgia--Macon
  • -  United States--Georgia--Richmond--Augusta
  • -  United States--Georgia--Bibb--Macon
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Anderson--Anderson
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Charleston--Charleston
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Greenville--Greenville
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Orangeburg--Orangeburg
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Richland--Columbia
  • -  United States--South Carolina--Spartanburg--Spartanburg

Genre

  • Newspapers
  • Periodicals

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began with: Vol. I, number 1 (June 24, 1837); ceased with: Volume 112, number 46 (November 18, 1948).
  • -  "Began as a newspaper but gradually developed a periodical format"--Moore, South Carolina newspapers, page 210.
  • -  Published: Charleston, South Carolina, 1837-1862 and 1878-1886; Augusta, Georgia, 1862-1865; Macon, Georgia, 1866-1878; Columbia, South Carolina, 1887-1894, 1899-1900 and 1919-1948; Greenville, South Carolina, 1895-1898 and 1912-1914; Orangeburg, South Carolina, 1901-1902; Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1903-1912; and Anderson, South Carolina, 1915-1918.
  • -  Volumes for 1866- numbered continuously as whole no. 1465- .
  • -  Issue of called also:
  • -  Issues for lack volume numbering.
  • -  Publication suspended Apr. 20-June 22, 1865 and July 6-Aug. 24, 1865.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Published for: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1837-; for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, -1899; for the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1900.
  • -  Mirror of the times (Macon, Ga.) may have been intended to appear also as a separately titled section of this publication.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. I, number 1 (June 24, 1837); title from masthead.
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Volume 112, number 46 (November 18, 1948).
  • -  South Carolina Methodist advocate (OCoLC)21062437

Medium

  • 112 volumes : illustrations ; 59-73 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • BX8201 .S6

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87065702

OCLC Number

  • 16752598

ISSN Number

  • 2997-5670

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:

Southern Christian Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1837 to 1948. (Augusta, GA), Jan. 1 1837. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065702/.

APA citation style:

(1837, January 1) Southern Christian Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1837 to 1948. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065702/.

MLA citation style:

Southern Christian Advocate Charleston, S.C. 1837 to 1948. (Augusta, GA) 1 Jan. 1837. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn87065702/.