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
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