How Freedom of the Press Impacted the Slavery Debate

The debate over slavery had become such a polarizing issue within the United States that by the 1830s a series of small independent magazines started to emerge. These northern magazines shaped the slavery narrative and ultimately helped uninformed citizens to become allies of the abolitionist movement. This is a common trend throughout American history. Whenever a perceived injustice presents itself, the media steps forward to act as a microphone for the cause. Sometimes, like with slavery, this is warranted but at other times the narrative is false and pursued simply to increase paper sales. For example, yellow journalism between Pulitzer and Hearst used propaganda to persuade citizens into supporting the Spanish-American War just a few decades later, and the heightened interest kept consumers purchasing more newspapers. 

The two competing news sources during the abolitionist movement were The Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison and The North Star by Frederick Douglass. Unlike the era of yellow journalism, these two sources competed in a friendly way for the attention of readers. Garrison was on the scene in 1831 and Douglass followed in 1847. Both focused on testimonials of escaped slaves, moral arguments against the institution, and provided updates on how political leaders were working to stop slavery at a federal level.

Garrison disagreed with slavery on religious grounds and this inspired the name of his newspaper. In the same way that God was the liberator of the Jews in Israel, Garrison believed that God would liberate the slaves in the United States. Frederick Douglass on the other hand was an escaped slave. Douglass used his first-hand experience as a slave to tell his horror stories to the public. Public perception was changed due to the religious arguments and moral arguments that presented themselves in new media. Without the essential freedom of the press protected by the first amendment, the abolitionist movement may have taken another decade or two. 

For more information on Yellow Journalism, Frederick Douglass, and William Lloyd Garrison please see the links below.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Lloyd-Garrison

https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/douglass.html

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/yellow-journalism-the-fake-news-of-the-19th-century