Meet John Russwurm. To some people, Russwurm’s name may be familiar because he was one of the original editors of Freedom’s Journal, the first newspaper in the United States published by African Americans. The year was 1827. But Russwurm’s life story has far more chapters than that.
Early Years
John Brown Russwurm was born in 1799 in Port Antonio, Jamaica, the son of an enslaved Black woman whom he never really knew and a white man from a plantation owning family. It would appear that Russwurm’s father fully acknowledged his Mixed Race son as he sent him to Quebec, Canada for schooling when he was eight years old and then, when he married and moved to Maine, he brought John to live with him and his new wife. Russwurm was reportedly welcomed by his new stepmother and treated like family, not hired help. Even after his father died, he and his stepmother remained close and she and her new husband were the ones who helped Russwurm enroll at Bowdoin College in 1824 when he was 25 years old. He was the first Black student to graduate from Bowdoin College and one of the first Blacks to graduate from any college in the United States.
John Russwurm: The Journalist
Even though Russwurm himself was never a slave, he was deeply preoccupied with the idea of freedom for his people. For his graduation speech at Bowdoin, for example, he gave an impassioned speech about the struggle for freedom and potential for revolution in Haiti. He received his diploma from Bowdoin in 1826 and soon after found himself in New York City.
I’m not exactly sure what brought Russwurm to New York after graduation, but he ended up living and working with a group of Free Blacks in New York City who decided they wanted to start their own newspaper to counter the negative portrayal of Blacks in the mainstream press, and to report on the subjects that were of interest to the Black community in the United States at the time. In 1827, the first edition of Freedom’s Journal was published. Samuel Cornish, a presbyterian minister was the editor, Russwurm was the junior editor. In an oft-quoted editorial, the two men wrote in that first issue, “We mean to plead our own cause. No longer will others speak for us.” Finally, Black people could have their own voice and control their own narrative.
Back to Africa
Before its premature demise in 1829, Freedom’s Journal was circulated in 12 different states, as well as in Haiti, Canada and England. Russwurm assumed the position of editor after only six months because Cornish returned to the ministry. There were rumors that Cornish left the newspaper because he disagreed with Russwurm’s position on colonization. Although he initially was an advocate for abolition and Blacks receiving the full rights promised in the Constitution, Russwurm soon became convinced that that was never going to happen and the only way Black people could truly live freely, would be to return to Africa.
On Mach 28, 1829, Russwurm published the last issue of Freedom’s Journal. After Cornish left, Russwurm had used the pages of the Journal to plead his case for African colonization but the majority of the paper’s readers rejected the colonization argument, and thus stopped buying the paper.
Later that same year, John Brown Russwurm sailed for Liberia.
John Russwurm Reinvented
In Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, Russwurm resumed his role as journalist. Less than a year after his arrival to the new American colony, Russwurm became the editor of the Liberia Herald. It was a government-owned newspaper and didn’t have a great readership, but Russwurm jumped in and tried to give it an independent voice, free from government interference. He held that job until 1835 when he was removed from the position by government officials who refused to cede editorial control to Russwurm.
But Russwurm wasn’t ready to give up on his freedom dreams. While in Liberia, he married a woman originally from Baltimore, had five kids and then became the governor of a new colony called Maryland in Liberia that was 200 miles south of Monrovia. As governor, Russwurm was determined to build Maryland in Liberia into a thriving community for Free Black people. He was involved in developing everything from the system of education, the agriculture and the militia.
Russwurm: A Moses for his People
Russwurm died on June 9, 1851 in Africa. Although today in the United States he is probably most known as the editor of the nation’s first Black newspaper, there is a memorial in his honor in Liberia because of what he did in that nation. From the American National Biography Page on Russwurm:
“Russwurm sometimes likened himself to Moses, leader of the Israelites, in trying to push his people ahead; indeed, under his administration a colony of former American slaves achieved a large degree of self-government. He proved capable of handling difficulties with settlers, with adjacent Africans, and with white missionaries. His physical and executive perseverance gave the settlement the benefit of stability until it could consider viable alternatives to its dependent relationship with the Maryland State Colonization Society. The survival of the colony, now known as Maryland County in the Republic of Liberia, is attributable principally to the success of Russwurm’s governorship.”
I hoped you enjoyed that little history lesson and I hope you have a whole new respect for John Russwurm. What a fascinating life he led, and all because he believed in freedom.
Peace!
