shock to which it must otherwise have succumbed. It was issued in 1851, and continued to be published during a period of ten years of stormy agitation, until the outbreak of the civil war.
As a writer, Mr. Putman was known very well. He, however, did little work as a speaker, save in his native town on matters of local interest. His main efforts were made through his paper. He was what might be termed a practical man, full of common sense, which he used abundantly in conducting his journal. No paper up to this time, save The Star, survived the existence of The Journal.
There is one feature about Mr. Putman's life as a writer which is very flattering. He never fought for anything he did not conceive to be right. He had his faults, as all men have; but he looked far and thought soberly before acting. A friend speaks thus of him: "Mr. Putman was a man full of historical facts, and possessed keen perceptive powers; and he was a good writer." His paper was neat in appearance, and exhibited, in its mechanical make-up, a knowledge of the higher order of journalism.
The next effort at journalism among the early contemporaries of The North Star was The Alienated American, edited by Prof. W. H. H. Day, which he published at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1852, in the interest of Abolition, immediately after he graduated from Oberlin, in 1847. The American was decidedly one of the best journals ever published, supported by a well-trained man, as well as of recognized ability. This paper was wholly devoted to the cause for which it was every Afro-American's pleasure to fight,—that of freedom. A man eminently able and thoughtful, says—"It rendered timely and efficient service in the cause of freedom and the elevation of the colored people in the state."
Mr. Day was a scholarly writer, of as much ability as any of that day; and since he still lives, with years of experience
