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| "We wish...to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us...we intend to lay our case before the public...we must be firm...." |
These stirring words appeared in 1827 in the first issue of "Freedom's Journal", the first African-American newspaper in the United States. The bold statement was written by the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish, a co-founder of the paper with John B. Russwurm.
The "cause" Cornish and Russwurm wished to put forward involved two demands. One was for an end to slavery in the United States. The other was for equal rights for all African-Americans.
Cornish and Russwurm were touching a sensitive issue. At that time African-Americans made up less than 20% of the United States population. About 90% of African-Americans were held in slavery and had neither freedom nor any rights. Those African- Americans not held as slaves had only limited rights.
Free African-American abolitionists worked closely with the small number of liberal-minded whites who were their allies. They knew these allies often faced financial, social, and physical risks in supporting the unpopular anti- slavery cause. Still, there were many moments of unease. Too often it seemed that many white abolitionists did not treat black people like equals. They tended to speak for them and could be irritated when African-Americans disagreed with them and spoke for themselves.
African-American and white abolitionists did not always have a common purpose. Freedom for black slaves was linked to equality by African-American abolitionists, but equality was not the ultimate aim of many white abolitionists.
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