Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm : Founders of Freedom’s Journal
The newspaper founders elect prophet Cornish and John B. Russwurm as senior and junior editors, severally. Each man was community activist: Cornish was the primary to determine associate degree African-American Presbyterian Church and Russwurm was a member of the Haytian out-migration Society.
Freedom’s Journal was the primary African Yankee closely-held and operated newspaper within the US. A weekly four-column publication is written each weekday, Freedom’s Journal was supported by free-born African Americans John Russwurm and prophet Cornish on March sixteen, 1827 in New York City.
John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851) was an associate degree crusader, newspaper publisher, and founding father of the Republic of Liberia wherever he captive from the US. In 1836 Russwurm was elect as governor of Maryland in Africa, a little colony found out close by the Maryland State formation Society. He served there till his death.
Freedom’s Journal was kind of like alternative antebellum reform papers in this its pages consisted of stories of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was wont to address up to date problems like slavery and “colonization,” a thought that was planned by members of The Yankee formation Society, a principally white.
Samuel Cornish (1795-1858)
Cornish, associate degree crusader, and editor were born in geographic region County, Delaware in 1795 though the precise day and month are unknown. He was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York. Since each of his folks was free African Americans Cornish was born free. Once graduating from the Free African College in Philadelphia Cornish began coaching to become a Presbyterian minister and was ordained in 1822. Shortly, he as a captive to the town in New York where he organized the primary black Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
In addition to his duties as pastor, Cornish conjointly became a journalist. Operating with fellow African Yankee John B. Russwurm, he supported the primary African Yankee newspaper within the US, Freedom’s Journal. Cornish was the senior editor of the paper whereas Russwurm served as a junior editor. The primary issue appeared in town on a weekday, March 16, 1827. Once living during a world dominated by white media, Cornish and Russwurm explicit in their initial editorial, “We would like to plead our own cause.
John Russwurm (1799-1851)
John Russwurm was a person prior to his time. Centuries before students began debating such problems as “hegemony” and “the social construction of race,” Russwurm understood, however, the powerful used media to form and uphold damaging stereotypes of the helpless. He embarked on to challenge this follow, via a fresh style of media: African Yankee journalism.
Although he helped to vary the terms of discussion on race in America, Russwurm wasn’t a native of America. Born in Jamaica on Oct one, 1799, he captive to Quebec, North American country as a toddler than to Maine, wherever he attended Bowdoin faculty and wrote term papers on Toussaint L‘Ouverture, the fiery leader of the Haitian Revolution. In 1826 Russwurm became solely the second African Yankee within the U.S. to earn a school degree. His graduation speech centered on the Haitian Revolution.
The next year he as a captive met prophet Cornish, associate degree African Yankee Presbyterian minister, and editor. On March sixteen, 1827, Cornish and Russwurm revealed the primary issue of Freedom’s Journal. White publishers—specifically Mordecai Noah of the Enquirer—had long denigrated and attacked free blacks. Freedom’s Journal took a direct aim at them.
“We would like to plead our own case,” the editors wrote. “Too long have others spoken for the U.S.A. Too long has the public been deceived by deception in things that concern the U.S.A. dearly.” The paper was powerfully crusader, and it conjointly sought-after to grant African Americans pride in their communities. In and of itself it enclosed mini-biographies, poetry, sermons and birth, death and wedding announcements.
