CHAPTER X.
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE NORTH STAR.
BEGINNING with The North Star, journalism among Afro-Americans took a higher stand, and was of a more elevated plane than that previous to 1847.
About this time, the Abolition cause began to wax warm, and the fight was a vigorous one. In this condition of affairs the Afro-American could not have less interest than those among the other race who made many sacrifices for the sake of Abolition.
Upon the rostrum could be heard, all over the North, the voices of the abolitionists for the emancipation of the slave.
In this, the Afro-Americans enlisted. The matchless oratory of Frederick Douglass, John Remond, and others, was listened to in almost every section of the North, pleading for their brethren's freedom from oppression. This was seen to have been a necessary means of agitation.
It was also necessary that the press should be conducted by able and fearless advocates. It is true, Douglass had his Star, at Rochester; but other papers were needed to make the press heard in the hum of battle, in union with the musical voice of the orator; therefore, the Star should have its contemporaries.
71