INTRODUCTION—TO BE HEARD IN BLACK AND WHITE: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON BLACK PRINT CULTURE

Abstract

The social and economic circumstances for enslaved and oppressed Africans and Americans in colonial North America and the early United States republic served as the historical context for the formation of the distinct American culture. Whereas the peoples of European descent who settled in North America and established the United States valued individualism, supremacy, and civil liberties, the enslaved Americans developed core values that emphasized freedom, resistance against unjust oppression, and black self-determination. (1) And since depriving enslaved workers of access literacy and schooling became a cornerstone of the southern slave regime, reading, writing, and education in general were highly valued among free and enslaved Americans. The historical record offers incontrovertible evidence of the strong desire for literacy among Americans from the colonial and antebellum periods when efforts were made convert the enslaved workers Christianity, through the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, which witnessed entire race trying go school. (2) Testimonies from Americans who participated in the Exodus of 1879 and the first and second Great Migrations in the first half of the 20th century reveal that the desire for schooling for themselves and their children was a major factor pushing black southerners out of the rural areas and into urban areas in the North and South. It is only those unaware of the American history who would suggest that there is a lack of appreciation of the importance of education among U.S. Americans. (3) The major cultural institutions formed by Americans--the churches, the schools, social advancement and fraternal organizations, the press--were committed literacy training and educating Americans about their past and present conditions and future prospects in American society. Thus the acquisition of literacy was a communal rather than an individual endeavor. As recent studies of 19th century literacy practices make clear, African Americans' educational opportunities in reading, writing, and rhetoric were not offered them, but created by them, often by resisting restrictions that aimed at preventing such learning. (4) From the first newspaper, Freedom's Journal, black publications sought to plead our own cause and educate Americans, black and white, about the social objectives, economic institutions, and political desires of people of descent in the United States. From their beginnings black publications allowed enslaved and oppressed Americans to be heard in black and white. (v) This Special Issue of The Journal of American History offers new and original perspectives on the history of black print culture in the United States. While many black publications were aimed at informing those in the larger society about the racial discrimination and oppression facing people of descent, the more important objective was educate Americans themselves for individual and collective liberation. In the antebellum period, free Americans used their publications make clear their demands for full citizenship rights. In Pennsylvania in the colonial era and early years of the republic, free black male property owners were granted the right vote, but in 1837 the state constitution was amended and the franchise was limited white males only. As part of the campaign regain the franchise and other citizenship rights, free black newspapers and other publications attempted educate the black population about those activities that would demonstrate their worthiness for equal rights. In Vaccinating Freedom: Smallpox Prevention and the Discourses of American Citizenship in Antebellum Philadelphia, Dayle B. DeLancey demonstrates not only the inaccuracy of medical and other statistics suggesting that black Philadelphians were unwilling vaccinate themselves and family members against smallpox, but also that black print culture in the city was filled with articles and commentaries promoting smallpox vaccination. …