North Star

The first edition of Frederick Douglass's North Star newspaper was published in Rochester, New York, on December 3, 1847. Douglass had moved from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Rochester so that the circulation of his paper would not interfere with that of the Liberator or the Anti-Slavery Standard, papers heavily influenced by William Lloyd Garrison and other white Boston abolitionists. Douglass determined to publish the North Star after tiring of Garrison's stifling influence and returning from a successful antislavery speaking tour of the United Kingdom with $2,175. Thus, to free himself from white abolitionists, Douglass joined fellow black activist Martin R. Delany and published his own newspaper.

Dedicated to hastening the demise of slavery, Douglass mortgaged his house and incurred significant debt to present his views about slavery, the “peculiar institution.” It was Douglass's indefatigable perseverance that enabled the fledgling newspaper to survive. Douglass had Delany travel throughout the nation to raise subscriptions, while he remained in Rochester to edit the newspaper. After 6 months, Delany had unfortunately failed to generate sufficient funds to enable the paper to achieve solvency. Delany's inability to garner funds contributed to a rift between the two men that resulted in Delany's quitting the enterprise and leaving the paper entirely in Douglass's care. After Delany's departure, Douglass enlisted the support of prominent white patrons, who sustained him until the paper became self-sustaining. A British woman named Julia Griffiths became most instrumental in rescuing Douglass from financial disaster and preserving the North Star. Griffiths moved to Rochester from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, and became the paper's financial manager and journalism supervisor, as well as an advisor to Douglass. Her efforts enabled Douglass to become financially secure and afforded him the opportunity to focus primarily on producing the paper.

African Americans provided little financial assistance to the North Star. During its initial year of publication, the paper acquired five white subscribers to each black subscriber. Whites possessed greater wealth than blacks did and could afford to purchase subscriptions. However, the financial limitations of African Americans only partially explained the dearth of black support for Douglass's newspaper. Abolitionists functioned on the periphery of American society, and Douglass may have been viewed as a curiosity or even a pariah. Cautious blacks therefore eschewed abolition to ingratiate themselves with the larger white society. Less than 20% of the African American population supported the abolitionist cause.

Underlying factors involving the North Star's production carried equal significance to the antislavery message it conveyed in print. As a man who had been a slave and never received a formal education, Douglass, as publisher, represented a 19th-century anomaly. The crisp, lucid prose and clarity of thought that Douglass displayed in the North Star produced both awe and recrimination. A self-taught man gifted with the writing elegance and elocution of a Harvard graduate, Douglass undermined the erroneous concept of black inferiority. Douglass's abolitionist “friends” extolled his virtues as long as Douglass remained dependent on white largess and functioned as a nonvoting abolitionist. However, when Douglass sought equal stature with his benefactors, including as a voting abolitionist, whites withdrew their support and limited the North Star's financial success.

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