Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/77

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THE NORTH STAR.
69

vigorous use of the English language was always effective and good.

We clip the following from The Rising Sun: "Frederick Douglass' ability as an editor and publisher has done more for the freedom and elevation of his race than all his platform appeals."

The commencement of the publication of The North Star was the beginning of a new era in the black-man's literature. Mr. Douglass' great fame gave his paper at once a place among the first journals of the country; and he drew around him a corps of contributors and correspondents from Europe, as well as from all parts of America and the West Indies, that made his columns rich with the current literature of the world.

While The North Star became a welcome visitor to the homes of the whites who had never before read a paper edited by an Afro-American, its proprietor became still more popular as a speaker in every state in the Union where Abolitionism was tolerated,

Of all his labors, we regard Mr. Douglass' efforts as publisher and editor the most useful to his race.

For sixteen years, against much opposition, single-handed and alone, he demonstrated the fact that the Afro-American was equal to the white man in conducting a useful and popular journal.

The paper was continued under the title of The North Star until, in 1850, its name was changed, and it was afterwards known as "Frederick Douglass' Paper."

But there was only a change in name; for the same principles, the same ability, and fight for Abolition, characterized its every movement.

In the publication and work incident to the paper, Mr. Douglass was assisted by his sons. This accounts, in a great measure, for their love of newspapers at this writing, and their