Collection of East Coast Newsprint on Slavery and Indentured Servitude

Collection

Call Number: MS189

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Scope and Contents

This collection includes individual newspaper issues from the East Coast from publications such as The New England Courant, The Boston Gazette, and The National Democrat, as well as one broadside by Gerrit Smith, regarding enslaved persons, slavery, and indentured servants.

Dates

1723 -- 1846

Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Digital Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish. No documentation is available regarding the intellectual property rights in this collection.

Arrangement

This collection is organized in one series.

Extent

1.42 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

Custodial History

These newspapers were found in the Ryder Collection of Confederate Archives in 2011; the Ryder collection was cataloged as part of the WPA in 1939/1940 but in later decades the catalog (A Calendar of the Ryder Collection of the Confederate Archives at Tufts College 1940) was forgotten and library staff added other materials to the Ryder collection, usually items from the South, from the 18th and 19th century and around the time of the Civil War.

Because the newspapers were not part of the original Ryder collection, items were removed from the Ryder papers (they had been interfiled chronologically). As there is no documentation for this collection, the only shared feature between all of the newsprints is the fact they they all contain advertisement or notes regarding slavery, enslaved persons, or indentured servants -- which is likely the reason they were added to the Ryder collection. The newspapers were brought together into one separate, 'artificial' collection in spring 2012 by Susanne Belovari.

Processing Information

Processed by Susanne Belovari.

Processing status

This collection is processed.

Processing Information

In March 2021 this finding aid was reviewed for offensive description by Collections Management Archivist Adrienne Pruitt. Terms pertaining to slavery were updated according to P. Gabrielle Foreman, et al. “Writing about Slavery/Teaching About Slavery: This Might Help” community-sourced document, accessed December 15, 2020, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A4TEdDgYslX-hlKezLodMIM71My3KTN0zxRv0IQTOQs/mobilebasic.