Sway people to have an antislavery stance. And in order to do so, they felt they should have a newspaper because they could disseminate information which would convince them that slavery was a wrong and evil and it was actually hurting the country. Out of that meeting. And, remember, this is a year before michigan is actually a state. Out of that meeting came publication of a newspaper. And it was mostly led by two men. Theodore foster who came from new england. His father was a u. S. Senator. And reverend guy beckley who came from vermont. They managed to keep it going from 1841 through 1848 and thats really amazing when you look at the history of newspapers in this country. In 1842, we still have a newspaper being published by the executive committee of the Antislavery Society, and sullivan, who was the printer out of jackson county, michigan is still the printer. Thats going to change and beckly and foster are going to take over within a short time of managing the newspaper. This newspaper has an article here about written, describing frederick douglass. And its actually, when he was first starting to speak and what it was like to be a slave. And introduced many people who had a biased viewpoint that a slave could not necessarily be well educated. To hear these words spoken by a man who had recently been enslaved. And how eloquently he spoke. We also have in this issue articles about supporting the Liberty Party. The Liberty Party would become the National Party electing people for president of the United States, the person who ran in the 1840s for president of the United States was james birney. And he lived in the state of michigan. He ran very unsuccessfully, i might add, because the Liberty Party did not have a lot of support. And the main reason for that in the opinion of beckley was because they only had one issue on their platform. And that was ending slavery. Another really important part of the newspaper is this. They always had some poetry. And this one was by whittier. John greenleaf whittier. He published a number of poems that relates to slavery and the sadnesses connected with those enslaved. Youll see in this issue, march 6th, 1843, that now foster and beckley are the publishers of the newspaper. They will have taken over until 1847 when beckley resigned and foster then continued for some at least another year. They generally had publishing information begging for subscriptions or wood or chickens over anything they could get in exchange for the newspaper. Poetry. Heres a poem again related to a slave by longfellow. They then included National News and here the michigan temperance society. Here they have doctrines at washington. So the National News was very important to include. Then they would sometimes follow that with discussions or alternative viewpoints that might of an opposing view. The underground railroad had become quite effective by the 1840s. And certainly got to be very effective in the 1850s. And it was proven not only by the northerners making claims, but by people in slaveholding states. Going to their legislature and saying, help us retrieve our property. Quote, property. And so here we have an article about the Missouri Legislature going to congress and saying to them that under the existing laws of canada and the treaties between Great Britain and the United States, it is impossible to recover a slave who has once escaped to the canadian shore. And, of course, what is the fastest way to get across but from detroit across the Detroit River to get to canada, which was why michigan played such an Important Role in the underground railroad. So here we have them showing themselves to this whole country that this issue had become a serious problem. And that slaves werent these contented folk as they claimed. They were escaping permanently from a life they no longer wanted to lead. They wanted their freedom. And they showed it to the world. So this newspaper said, look. Here it is. Getting toward the end of publication, 1847. At this time, beckley has bowed out of publishing. He had written personal letters where he said that it was just too great a hardship. He had many children, and they were not getting enough to live on because he was putting so much money into the publication of the newspaper. Sadly, he died suddenly very shortly after this. So Theodore Foster continued publishing. He found someone else to work with him. But this is the next to last publication that we have here. So it did not it was not able to continue without enough financial support. It was very effective in reaching thousands of people. There were at least a couple thousand, over 2,000 people at one point subscribing to this newspaper. And like other newspapers, it opened an avenue for people to lead discussions in their own communities. It also upheld the Liberty Party and notified people where there would be Liberty Party meetings, Antislavery Society meetings. It was a way to reach people, the citizens who needed to be involved and wanted to be involved. All weekend long, American History tv is featuring ann arb arbor, michigan. Nicknamed tree town because of its dense forestation and parks and residential areas. Hosted by our Comcast Cable partners, cspans local content vehicles recently traveled there to explore the areas rich history. Learn more about ann arbor, michigan, all weekend here on American History tv. This is the story of willow run. One of the ford farms that virtually overnight became the largest aircraft plant that had ever been built. A story that now can be told in full. Were