Black Writers and the Emancipatory Struggles of the Antebellum Period

African American newspapers and public intellectuals played a pivotal role in ending enslavement, setting the stage for building Reconstruction and fighting the long years of legalized segregation

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Wednesday February 18, 2026

African American History Month Series No. 4

Writing and public speaking were key elements in the movements to end African enslavement and other forms of national oppression in the United States.

Going back to 1827, the first Black-owned English-language newspaper was published by Free Africans in New York City known as Freedom’s Journal which was founded by people such as Jamaican-born John Brown Russwurm, a graduate of Bowdoin College, the first African American to do so and only the third Black person to graduate from an United States college. 

One of the co-founders of Freedom Journal’s, Samuel Eli Cornish, was born in Sussex County, Delaware. Cornish graduated from the Free African School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also founded Shiloh Presbyterian Church, the first Black Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, in 1822. (https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4415)

Prior to the publication of Freedom’s Journal, Phillis Wheatley, a young African woman born in the Senegambia region published a book of poems in 1773. Her writings did much to refute the notion that African people were inherently inferior to Europeans. (https://www.masshist.org/features/endofslavery/wheatley)

Freedom’s Journal editorial policies were reflective of the debates taking place among Africans in the U.S. The newspaper was founded in the same year that chattel slavery was legally ended in the state of New York. 

Some within the editorial staff advocated the repatriation of African people in the U.S. back to the West African state of Liberia. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was established to facilitate the removal of people of African descent whom it was believed could not live a fulfilling life in U.S. After two centuries of enslavement under the British, Dutch, French and Spanish, some Africans were compelled to migrate to the continent to build a life as an independent state. 

Others believed that the primary task of free persons of color was to advocate and organize for the abolition of slavery. A series of national conferences were held beginning in the 1830s. Tracts such as David Walker’s Appeal were released in 1829 calling for African Americans to organize for their freedom. 

Women Writers and the Struggle for Freedom and Justice: Maria Stewart

One of the key literary and political figures in the campaigns to overturn the system of slavery was Maria Stewart. She emerged from the Northeast regional state of Connecticut in the U.S. and later became a highly educated, articulate lecturer and prolific writer during the 1830s.

Her writings were published by the Liberator newspaper founded by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. As a printer as well as organizer, Garrison co-founded the newspaper with Isaac Knapp. He would play an important role in the founding of the New England and later American Anti-Slavery Society emanating from the Boston area which was a base for abolitionist activity.

In August 1831, a slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Virginia created a sense of panic among the planters and their representatives within the U.S. Congress. Opponents of African enslavement became emboldened through the strengthening of the Underground Railroad and the proliferation of literature and public speaking against human bondage. Although the Atlantic Slave Trade was said to have been abolished by Britain and the U.S. during the first decade of the 19th century, the triangular marketing of Africans in exchange for money and commodities continued. The number of enslaved Africans dramatically increased between 1800 and 1860, the year of the presidential elections which precluded the Civil War (1861-65).

One historical source on the contributions of Maria Stewart notes:

“In 1832 Stewart began lecturing in Boston, doing so at a time when it was frowned upon for women to speak in public, especially in front of men. She gave her first speech to an audience of women at the African American Female Intelligence Society, discussing the benefits of African American women accepting God into their lives and standing up for their rights. Her second speech, delivered at Franklin Hall, was noteworthy for having an audience that included both men and women and both Black and white people. In that speech, she noted that free Black people were similar to enslaved Black people because of their shared lack of opportunity. Her third lecture, at the African Masonic Hall, was also before a mixed audience and addressed the issues of African American rights and liberty. Stewart gave a total of four speeches before public pressure forced her to retire from the lecture circuit in 1833; her last speech was titled “Mrs. Stewart’s Farewell Address to Her Friends in the City of Boston” and was delivered on September 21, 1833.” (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Stewart)

The degree of pioneering bravery of Stewart is quite striking for the early decades of the 19th century. Other public women speakers such as Sojourner Truth during the post 1840s period also in the northeast region of the U.S., gained considerable recognition for their oratory skills and tenacity.

Although there is no record of Stewart delivering public lectures after 1833, another source says of her activity:

“In 1834, Maria Stewart joined a “Female Literary Society” composed of Black women in New York. She became a teacher, later moving to Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. Stewart taught in D.C. during the Civil War, and in 1870 she remained in the District to direct housekeeping at the Freedmen’s Hospital and Asylum. This senior position was previously held by Sojourner Truth. In 1878, Stewart finally received a widow’s pension, of $8 a month, for James Stewart’s service in the War of 1812. With the pension she republished her Meditations with reflections on her experiences of the Civil War. Stewart died in the Freedmen’s Hospital on December 17, 1878.” (https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/west-boston/maria-stewart/)

Flight and Emigration: The Role Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Born in the slave state of Delaware in 1823, Mary Ann Shadd and her brother would leave the U.S. moving to Canada after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Although she was born into a Free African family, there were numerous instances of people being kidnapped and placed back into enslavement.

By the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, there were approximately 500,000 free Africans living in the U.S. and nearly 4 million enslaved. Whether one was considered free or enslaved the overall social conditions of people of African descent were dire. Consequently, the Free Africans played an essential role in the abolitionist and emigration tendencies within the Black movement overall.

A National Emigration Convention of Colored People was held in 1854 in Cleveland which was attended by some of the leading personalities within the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Martin R. Delaney played a prominent role in the Convention along with others such Mrs. Mary Bibbs of Canada West and William Lambert of Michigan.  The persons in attendance and the resolutions of the gathering have been preserved as a testament to the rigorous character of the movement aimed at emancipation of African people living in North America. (https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/314)

A report on the Colored Convention Movement during the antebellum period in the 1850s focused on the contributions of Shadd:

“Much like her father, who edited the Liberator alongside William Lloyd Garrison, Shadd was inspired to create her own newspaper in order to pursue her pro-emigration and abolitionist goals. She did just that, publishing the first issue of Provincial Freeman on March 25, 1854. Shadd did not place her name under the masthead of the paper, ‘thus concealing the paper’s editorship’. In addition to including her own articles (without crediting herself) in the paper, Shadd incorporated the work of other influential abolitionists and pro-emigrationists, such as Martin Delany. Although Mary Ann Shadd was not in attendance at the 1854 Emigration Convention, it can be said that her pro-emigration pieces in the Provincial Freeman were incredibly influential as associated textual pieces engaging the convention event. The following year, Shadd maneuvered her way into the 1855 Colored Convention. Although her emigration ideas clashed with some delegates, Shadd presented a speech at the convention. It proved convincing to the delegates so much so that they granted permission to extend her speaking time.” (https://coloredconventions.org/emigration-debate/women-involvement/mary-ann-shadd/)

This African American woman writer, publisher and organizer left an indelible mark of the years leading up to the Civil War and eventual legal emancipation. Shadd would later marry Thomas F. Carey in 1856 while continuing her publication and advocacy work. (https://coloredconventions.org/harper/activist-and-writing-community/mary-miles-bibb/)

After the eruption of the Civil War, she returned to the U.S. to serve as a recruiter of African American soldiers into the Union Army. In her later years she trained in law and became one of the few women and Black practicing attorneys in the U.S.

Journalism as a Platform for Resistance

These two African American women, Maria Stewart and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, represent two outstanding writers and public intellectuals committed to the objectives of Black emancipation in North America. Emigration advocates and practitioners were by no means avoiding the inevitable Civil War which ended African enslavement with the military defeat of the Confederacy and the passage of the 13th Amendment.

The majority of those who fled the U.S. seeking refuge in Canada returned to join the war to abolish African enslavement. Those who were a part of the Civil War effort were influenced by the work of Cornish and Russwurm of Freedom’s Journal and later the Liberator co-founded by Garrison as well as the North Star created by Frederick Douglass and co-edited by Delaney. (https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=northstar1847)

This utilization of newspapers and pamphlets would continue in the aftermath of the Civil War in efforts to build a free and independent existence. Some of the same writers would shift their focus to Reconstruction as well as a renewed focus on Emigration.