Signal of Liberty

The Signal of Liberty was an anti-slavery newspaper published in the mid-19th century in Michigan. The decision to publish a newspaper was one of the outcomes of the founding meeting of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society that met for several days beginning on November 10, 1836 in Ann Arbor of the Michigan Territory (1805–1837).^[1] In 1838, Nicholas and William Sullivan published Michigan's first antislavery newspaper, the American Freedmen in Jackson, Michigan. Seymour Treadwell published and was the editor of the Michigan Freeman in 1839. The papers did not have a regular printing schedule.^[1]

The Signal of Liberty was published weekly from April 1841 to 1848 in Ann Arbor by Rev. Guy Beckley and Theodore Foster, who were co-editors. It was printed on Broadway Avenue on the second floor of Josiah Beckley's mercantile shop.^[1] The purpose of the newspaper was to encourage anti-slavery sentiment by sharing the stories of the lives of enslaved people. They interviewed freedom seekers who left their slaveholders and passed through or settled in Michigan. When African Americans escaped slavery, they were often pursued by slave catchers. The Signal of Liberty covered the stories of "kidnapping outrages" like the Kentucky raid in Cass County (1847), the Crosswhite Affair in Marshall, and raids that occurred in Detroit.^[1] There were regular sections in the paper for national news, antislavery society news, and poetry. It announced antislavery societies that were established throughout Michigan.^[1] The newspaper served its subscribers in Michigan and the Midwest. After the newspaper closed, Michigan Liberty Press was published.^[2]

Promoting antislavery messages could be dangerous. Throughout the 1830s, anti-slavery lecturers faced angry crowds. Abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed in Alton, Illinois, by a pro-slavery mob in the fall of 1837 after he refused to give up his printing press.^[1]

See also

• The Liberator (newspaper)

References

External links

• Digitized versions of Signal of Liberty, 1841 to 1848, Ann Arbor District Library

• v
• t
• e

Underground Railroad

People

• William Brinkley
• John Brown
• Owen Brown
• Samuel Burris
• Levi Coffin
• Richard Dillingham
• Frederick Douglass
• Calvin Fairbank
• Isaac S. Flint
• Thomas Garrett
• Frances Harper
• Laura Smith Haviland
• David Hudson
• Daniel Hughes
• Peg Leg Joe
• William Cooper Nell
• Harriet Forten Purvis
• Robert Purvis
• John Rankin
• Hetty Reckless
• Gerrit Smith
• William Still
• Calvin Ellis Stowe
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Charles Turner Torrey
• Harriet Tubman
• Delia Webster

Places

• List of Underground Railroad sites
  • houses
  • churches
• Underground Railroad in Indiana
• British Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel

Events

• Emeline and Samuel Hawkins flight (1845)
• Pearl incident (1848)
• Kentucky raid in Cass County (1847)
• The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case (1849)
• Christiana Riot (1851)
• Jerry Rescue (1851)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852 book)
• Joshua Glover rescue (1854)
• Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856 book)
• Dover Eight (1857)
• Oberlin–Wellington Rescue (1858)
• Tilly Escape (1856)
• Ann Maria Jackson and her seven children (1859)
• Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Topics

• Abolitionism in the United States
  • Abolitionism
  • opponents of slavery
  • African-American opponents
  • publications
• Fugitive slaves
• Fugitive slave laws
  • 1850
• Quilts
• Reverse Underground Railroad
• Signals
  • lawn jockey
• Slave catcher
• Songs of the Underground Railroad
• The Underground Railroad Records (1872 book)

Related

• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• Harriet Tubman Memorial (Boston)
• Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park
• Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park
  • visitor center
• Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center
• Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
• The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War (1932 book)
• A Woman Called Moses (1978 miniseries)
• Roots of Resistance (1989 documentary)
• The Quest for Freedom (1992 film)
• Freedom: The Underground Railroad (2013 board game)
• The North Star (2016 film)
• Underground (2016 TV series)
• Harriet (2019 film)
• The Underground Railroad (2021 miniseries)