Khang Tonthat
Professor Mary Klann
United States History II
January 2, 2020
News has been a key component in the world for centuries, it is one of the primary sources of how people receive their information of what is occurring in the world. Over the years the way the news has been transmitted has been changing and improving from the humble beginnings of mouth to mouth, to newspapers, then to radios, and eventually television. From all these advancements of how news spread, made me wonder how did information about past events in the United States were told to other countries when technology was still very limited. Due to my curiosity, for my I-Search Paper I decided to research about: How did news about racism and the Civil War in the United States spread to other countries?
Racism
During this time of racism and the Civil War, the radio has not yet been invented, so the only forms of news being spread is by mouth to mouth and newspaper. A man that goes by the name of Fredrick Douglass did both that. Fredrick was once a slave, however, one faithful day he escaped his owner and went to Massachusetts where he settled down with his wife Anna Murray. He then proceeded to become a preacher which helped him hone his oratorical skills as he started to become more vocal against racism. He later made his own newspaper company called the "Fredrick Douglass' Paper" and he had also travelled to Britain and Ireland for 19 months to spread news and lecturing about slavery, racism, and lynching in the States. He spoke in many places, from large cities to small fishing towns hoping to open the eyes of others to show the impurities of slavery.
Civil War
Most news that was passed between the United States and Britain were from mostly mouth to mouth through ships traveling between the two countries. This line travel was also used to make the King of Britain reconsider his relationship with the Southern States through the Emancipation Proclamation that had been issued by President Abraham Lincoln. With this news of the proclamation, it prevented England from entering the conflict within the United States.
Sources:
https://unfold.pr.co/181121-a-brief-history-of-news-publishing
http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/usforeignrelations/exhibits/show/british-involvement-in-the-ame
I absolutely love the use of the Frederick Douglass map in this post Khang! It is also interesting to think about not only the content of Douglass' speeches, but the nature of his speechmaking as a process of spreading information about abolitionism. It is also really cool to think about how information traveled between two countries over an ocean, and how that word of mouth translated into official state policies.