December 1847

Frederick Douglass launched The North Star in Rochester, New York, declaring in his prospectus that 'a man was too much a slave who could not speak for himself.' The paper, funded partly by British abolitionist donations, became the most widely read Black newspaper of its era and ran until 1851 when it merged into Frederick Douglass' Paper.

Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany co-founded The North Star in Rochester, New York — the most influential Black newspaper of the antebellum era. Douglass sold his British lecture gifts to fund it. The masthead read: 'Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color — God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.' By 1851 it became Frederick Douglass' Paper and continued until 1860, reaching 4,000 subscribers.

Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany co-founded The North Star in Rochester — the most influential Black newspaper of the antebellum era. Its masthead: 'Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color — God is the Father of us all.' By 1851 it became Frederick Douglass' Paper, reaching 4,000 subscribers before closing in 1860.

Douglass founds his abolitionist newspaper under the masthead "Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color."