Freedoms Journal

FREEDOMS JOURNAL

(1827-1829)

First African American NEWSPAPER

The newspaper was founded on March 16, 1827, at 5 Varick Street in Lower Manhattan, New York, by Jamaican-born John Brown Russwurm, Bowdoin College’s first African American graduate and only the third Black person to graduate from an American college. Cofounder Samuel Eli Cornish, born in Sussex County, Delaware, and a graduate of the Free African School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also founded Shiloh Presbyterian Church, the first Black Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, in 1822.

the first Newspaper journal that was available was the FREEDOMS JOURNAL which started on March 16th 1827. the opening editorial in the first issue read “we wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us…:

The paper was initiated by John Russworm and Samuel Cornish .

John Russworm was born a slave in Port Antonio, Jamaica. In 1819 he attended a prep school and later Bowdoin College in Maine. Graduating in 1826, He was one of the first African American to achieve his degree.

Samuel Cornish was a Presbyterian minister.

Due to disagreements on the forwarding on encouraging African Americans to migrate back to African He and Samuel had a fall our and the paper disbanded. Patrons of the newspaper were surprised by Russwurm’s decision to move to Africa, where he felt blacks could have more opportunities and attain full citizenship. He resigned his position as editor, obtained a master’s degree from Bowdoin College, and moved to Liberia, an African country founded by former American slaves. There he edited The Liberia Herald and later became that country’s superintendent of education.

Russwurm also became governor of the Maryland settlement in Liberia and served until his death. A monument was erected in his honor on an island off the coast of Liberia.