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“I once passed a colored woman at work on a plantation, who was singing, apparently, with animation, and whose general manners would have led me to set her down as the happiest of the gang. I said to her, “Your work seems pleasant to you.’ She replied, ‘No, massa.’

Supposing she referred to something particularly disagreeable in her immediate occupation, I said to her, ‘Tell me then what part of your work is most pleasant.’

She answered with much emphasis, ‘No part pleasant. We forced to do it.’”

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We exhaust the following from a circular sent us by John J.E. Linton, of Stratford. The facts are striking, and conclusive against the liquor traffic, as productive of a very large proportion of the offences that are tried before police and criminal courts.

I hope you will approve of my thus publicly stating the following facts. (more…)

Till very lately the Chinese in their maps of the earth, set down the Celestial Empire in the middle of a large square, and dotted round it the other kingdoms of the world, supposed to be 72 in number, assigning to the latter ridiculous or contemptuous names.

One of these, for example, was Siaogin que or the Kingdom of Dwarfs, whose inhabitants they imagined to be so small as to be under the necessity of tying themselves together in bunches, to prevent their being carried away by the kites.

In 1668 the Viceroy of Canton, in a memorial to the Emperor, on the subject of the Portuguese embassy, says, ‘We find very plainly that Europe is only two little islands in the middle of the sea. With such ideas of other nations, it is not wonderful that they should consider the embassies and presents sent to them as marks of submission, and hasten to write down the donors in their maps, as tributaries of the Chinese Empire.‘

Published March 28, 1829
Freedom’s Journal 

The Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (Great Ming Dynasty Amalagamated Map)

Notes about Freedom’s Journal

Freedom’s Journal was the first African American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States. Published weekly in New York City from 16 March 1827 to 28 March 1829, the journal was edited by John Russwurm and co-editor, Samuel Cornish who contributed only through the 14 September 1827 issue.

Chinese Geography in Freedom's Journal

The editors Cornish and Russwurn used Freedom’s Journal to oppose the other racist newspapers in New York City and in order to publicly protest their current treatment. They believed that these mass accounts inaccurately represented blacks in New York City and that their newspaper would be a response to the mass newspapers in NYC that distorted African-Americans. People were ignorant of the truth and they thought Freedom’s Journal might change the perception of Black’s in society. Cornish and Russwurm argued in the first issue of the freedom journal that, “Too long have others spoken for us, too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations…”

However, Cornish and Russwurm’s objective for Freedom’s Journal did not only concern racism against African-Americans but also involved the autonomy and identity of African-Americans in society.

We have Freedom’s Journal as a complete collection covering March 16, 1827 — March 28, 1829.

This letter by Harriet Beecher Stowe appeared in the Provincial Freeman newspaper in what is now Ontario. This weekly newspaper was edited and published by negroes in the Province of Canada West where many fugitive slaves from the United States had settled.

Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey, born on October 9, 1823, into a prominent black family in Wilmington, Delaware  dedicated herself to the promotion of self-reliance and independence among black Canadians. She helped found the Provincial Freeman and became the first black North American female editor and publisher, with the purpose of transforming black refugees into model citizens.

An Appeal to the Women of the Free States of America
on the Present Crisis in our Country

By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Providence of God has brought our station to a crisis of most solemn interest.

A question is now pending in our National Legislature which is most vitally to affect the temporal and eternal interests, not only of ourselves, but of our children, and our children’s children for ages yet unborn. – Through our nation it is to affect the interests of Liberty and Christianity throughout the whole world.

Of the woes, the injustice and the misery of Slavery it is not needful to speak. There is but one feeling and one opinion on this among us all. I do not think there is a mother among us all who clasps her child to her breast who could ever be made to feel it right that that child should be a slave; not a mother among us all who would not rather lay that child in its grave.

Nor can I believe that there is a woman so unchristian as to think it right to inflict on her neighbor’s child what she would think worse than death were it inflicted on her own. I do not think there is a wife who would think it right that her husband should be sold to a trader, and worked all life without rights and without wages. I do not believe there is a husband who would think it right that his wife should be considered, by law, the property of another man, and not his own. I do not think there is a father or mother who would believe it right were they forbidden by law to teach their children to read. I do not believe there is a brother who would think it right to have his sister held as property, with no legal defence for her personal honor, by any man living.

All this is inherent in Slavery. It is not the abuse of Slavery, but the legal nature of it. And there is not a woman in the United, when the question is fairly put before her, who thinks these things are right.

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Caution!!!

From information received from reliable sources, we learn that parties are at present in Toronto, endeavouring to induce colored persons to go to the States in their employ as servants. From the character of the propositions, there is reason to believe that “foul play” is intended. Possibly, that Constable Pope’s designs on the fugitives and others are being carried out.

Individuals have proposed to women to go to Detroit to live in their service, and another party under circumstances of great suspicion, to a boy, to go as far South as Philadelphia. We say to our people, listen to no flattering proposals of the sort. You are in Canada, and let no misplaced confidence in this or the other smooth-tongued Yankee, or British subject either, who may be necessary enough deprive you of your liberty.

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