An Editorial From Freedom's Journal Summary

The editorial, An Editorial from Freedom’s Journal, was written by Samuel E. Cornish and John Brown Russwurm. Samuel E. Cornish was born in 1795 in Sussex County, Delaware, and had later lived in Philadelphia, as well as New York City. He was also born free, and graduated from the Free African School in Philadelphia. (Stirling, Robert, 1) John Brown Russwurm was born in 1799 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He was born to a white planter and a black slave mother, and was sent to Quebec, Canada when he was eight years old to receive an education. He was also the first African-American to graduate from Bowdoin College, and the third African-American to graduate from college in the United States. (Bowdoin College Library, 1) An Editorial from Freedom’s Journal was published on March 16, 1827, the significance of this date being that it was the year that the first African-American newspaper in the United States was published, which was the Freedom’s Journal, where this excerpt came from. (White, Bay, Martin, 166) Slavery was also abolished in New York in 1827, which holds significance because the Freedom’s Journal was published in New York City, New York. (Kosto, 1) The audience of An Editorial from
Freedom’s Journal is free blacks, more specifcally those who can read, and other like minded abolitionist individuals. The agenda of this editorial is to influence others through moral suasion to strive for abolition. The petition, Petition to Congress on the Fugitive Slave Act, was written by Absalom Jones and seventy others.
Absalom Jones was born into slavery in 1746 in Delaware. He later purchased his freedom in 1784, and became the first black priest shortly after. He then established the Free African Society with Richard Allen in 1787. (The Archives of the Episcopal Church, 1) The significance of the date this was published, 1799, was that it was also the year that New York established a Gradual Emancipation Act set to free all those born into slavery after July 4th, 1799. (Kosto, 1) The audience of this petition was directed towards Congress. The agenda of this petition was to protect free blacks from be recaptured, and to put into question the constitutional legitimacy of
slavery.
The nineteenth century was the beginning of what eventually led to the civil war, and soon after the end of the institution that was slavery. One of the first aspects on the freedom struggle was the struggle that came with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. The uneasiness of free blacks and escaped slaves alike made the idea of freedom seemingly temporary in areas where they could be easily taken. Another aspect of the freedom struggle was the struggle to convince citizens and the government that the abolition of slavery needed to occur. The final aspect of the freedom struggle being that African-Americans should be valued and considered both citizens and as equals in the eyes of the general public and the United States government. The freedom struggle that came with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, the struggle of convincing everyone to support abolition, and the struggle to be considered both citizens and equals were all present in the nineteenth century. In these two documents, these issues are both present, but are addressed in similar and contrasting ways.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was one of many steps back in the struggle towards freedom. Those who considered themselves to be free could now lose that freedom due to the law. A law that “established the legal mechanisms by which escaped slaves could be seized and returned.” (White, Bay, Martin, 135) As stated in the Petition to Congress on the Fugitive Slave Act, “The law not long since enacted by Congress, called the Fugitive Bill, is in its execution found to be attended with circumstances peculiarly hard and distressing; for many of our afflicted brethren, in order to avoid the barbarities wantonly exercised .” (White, Bay, Martin, 163)