Freedom’s Journal was founded on March 16, 1827 as a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly. The newspaper was also the first black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States, and was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State. The paper attempted to respond to racist material published in other forms of media.
Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm served as editors. Freedom’s Journal was similar to other reform papers in that its contents consisted of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and “colonization,” a concept which was conceived by members of The American Colonization Society, a mostly white pro-emigration organization founded in 1816 to repatriate free black people to Africa. Freedom’s Journal provided its readers with regional, national, and international news. It sought to improve conditions for newly freed black men and women living in the North. Freedom’s Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements. To encourage black achievement it featured biographies of renowned black figures such as Paul Cuffee, a black Bostonian who owned a trading ship staffed by free black people.
Russwurm became sole editor of Freedom’s Journal following the resignation of Cornish in September 1827, and began to promote the colonization movement. The majority of the public did not support the paper’s radical shift in support of colonization, and in March 1829, Freedom’s Journal ceased publication. Soon after, Russwurm emigrated to the American Colonization Society of Liberia, and became governor of the Maryland Colony.