The Morning Star was a weekly newspaper owned and published by Freewill Baptists in 19th century New England, which campaigned vigorously for the abolition of slavery long before such a political stance was widely considered to be respectable in America. Free Will Baptist Church (or Free Will Baptists) is a group of churches that share a common history, name, and an acceptance of the Arminian theology of free grace, free salvation, and free will, based on the idea of general atonement. ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... This article is about the abolition of slavery. ...

The first issue was published in Limerick, Maine on 11 May 1826. Seven years later the newspaper relocated to Dover, New Hampshire, and it continued to be published in that town from November 1833 until December 1874. Thereafter it was published in various cities including Portland, Boston, New York and Chicago, until its final issue rolled off the presses some time in 1911. [1][2] This article is about the town in the USA. For other uses of the name, see Limerick (disambiguation). ... Dover is a small city located in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. ... Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... “New York, NY” redirects here. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ...

An early editor was John Buzzell, who was also partly responsible for the foundation of the paper. [3]

Until 1834 the newspaper concerned itself mainly with religion, and largely kept out of politics. When it commented on slavery it took a conservative attitude, with editorials denouncing radical abolitionists and counselling "the exercise of moderation and charity". [4] Slave redirects here. ... This article is about the abolition of slavery. ...

On the death of the editor Samuel Beede in March 1834, however, control was passed to William Burr, who immediately re-launched The Morning Star as a newspaper that would campaign vigorously and tirelessly for the complete abolition of slavery. This was a remarkable position for an American publication to take at that time, especially in an overwhelmingly white town where the major employers were large cotton mills: Dover's prosperity depended to a great extent, indirectly, on slave labour in the South. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Slavery is any of a number of related conditions involving control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or other clear forms of coercion. ...

Burr's principled move plunged the newspaper rapidly into crisis. Publication had to be suspended for a while because the New Hampshire State Legislature refused to grant The Morning Star an Act of Incorporation on account the paper's campaigning activities. [5] The New Hampshire General Court is the state legislature of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. ...

The abolitionist message did not go down well with readers. Sales plummetted, and the editor was denounced by delegates to the 1837 General Conference of Freewill Baptists, who put forward a motion calling for the paper to cease its campaign against slavery "so as to avert from the denomination the public odium heaped upon abolitionists, and to reconcile the disaffected members." The motion was defeated. [6]

In 1841, in protest at the authorities' refusal to act to prevent attacks on black people and abolitionists in segregated railway carriages (including highly publicised incidents involving Charles Lenox Remond and David Ruggles) The Morning Star printed a call for readers to boycott the Eastern Railroad - a remarkable step at that time. [7] Charles Lenox Remond (1810-1882) was an African-American abolitionist who was born free in Salem, Massachusetts. ... David Ruggles organized New York City underground railroad in the 1830s and helped more than 600 former slaves to freedom. ... The following railroads have been known as Eastern Railroad or Eastern Railway: Eastern Railway (Alabama) Eastern Railway (Western Australia) Austrian Eastern Railway Eastern Railway (India) Eastern Railroad (Maine), a competitor and later subsidiary of the Boston and Maine Railroad from Boston, Massachusetts through New Hampshire into Maine Eastern Railway (Minnesota...

As the public mood became more receptive to the abolitionist message, the circulation figures picked up. While continuing to fulfil its original function as official organ of the Free Will Baptist denomination, The Morning Star continued its vociferous anti-slavery campaign right up to the end of the Civil War, condemning the iniquities of slavery with eloquent and rousing rhetoric. This article is becoming very long. ...

As an example, when Oren B. Cheney took over as editor in October 1853, he announced his arrival with a thunderous anti-slavery editorial: Oren B. Cheney Oren Burbank Cheney was the founder of Bates College. ...

"We shall speak against slavery, as we have hitherto done. We can find no language that has power to express the hatred we have towards so vile and so wicked an institution. We hate it. We abhor it. We loathe it. We detest and despise it as a giant sin against God, and an awful crime upon man. Thus we feel ourself, and thus we teach our children to feel, and dying we will teach them so." [8]

Possibly owing at least partly to the Star's infulence, Dover was the first town in New Hampshire to send strongly abolitionist representatives to the State Legislature, and one of the first in the U.S. to send an openly abolitionist Senator to Washington, in the person of John Parker Hale. [9] John Parker Hale (March 31, 1806 - November 19, 1873) was an American politician. ...

When, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln visited Dover to canvass support in the presidential elections of that year, William Burr was among those invited to join him on the speaker's platform. For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ...

Later editors of the Star included George T. Day and George H. Ball.[10]

This Morning Star has no connection with The Morning Star that was published in London at around the same time, nor with the paper of the same name that is published daily in Britain - that publication was founded in 1930 as The Daily Worker, and only changed its name to The Morning Star in 1966. The Morning Star was a newspaper published in London in the nineteenth century. ... For other uses, see Morning Star. ...

External links

• Dover's anti-slavery paper never gave up the fight (A history article from SeacoastNH.com)
• Storer College: A Hope for Redemption in the Shadow of Slavery (Part of a PhD dissertation by Dawne Raines Burke)