The North Star 1847-1850

Frederick Douglass founded The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper in Rochester, New York. Douglass gained a circulation of over 4,000 in the U.S, Europe, and the Caribbean. Its motto was "right is of no sex--truth is of no color--god is the father of us all, and we are all brethen."

The newspaper served as a forum for abolitionist views, and supported the feminist movement and the emancipation of other oppressed groups. All of Douglass' North Star newspaper copies were destroyed in a fire in his Rochester home in 1872. Marshall Pierce, a family friend , managed to collect many North Star newspapers and bound them into a book. The book's inscription reads: 'presented to Frederick Douglass to restore the file of the "North Star" lost by fire in the burning of his home-stead at Rochester, N.Y. by his friend Marshall Pierce Saco, Maine Sept. 29, 1872. May his volume be preserved unto all time! M.P.'