Newspaper Morning Star (Limerick, Me.) 1826-1904
About Morning Star (Limerick, Me.) 1826-1904
The Morning Star was a weekly newspaper owned and published by Freewill Baptists from 1826 to 1904. At the Star’s inception, the Freewill Baptist movement, established by Rev. Benjamin Randall (1749-1808), comprised more than three hundred ministers, and an estimated membership of fifteen thousand people affiliated with nearly four hundred churches across New England and the burgeoning Midwest. Reformatory in origin, the Freewill Baptists were primarily concerned with warning sinners to flee from the “wrath to come.” In this spirit, they heavily denounced Calvinism, and advocated for temperance, church planting, Sabbath and theological schools, and mission societies (foreign and domestic). Later, abolition would also be added as a central tenet. Throughout its lifespan, the Star fostered Benevolent Societies dedicated to each of these issues.
In the early 1800s, the Freewill Baptists boasted two pamphlet-style publications that were largely limited to their local contexts: A Religious Magazine (1811-3; 1820-2) — a quarterly publication by Elder John Buzzell (1766–1863) in Parsonsfield, ME — and The Religious Informer (1819-27) — a biweekly (later monthly) publication by Elder Ebenezer Chase in Andover, NH. The denomination saw the need for a more expansive weekly publication, and in 1826, after discussion at the General Conference, nine denomination leaders (Henry Hobbs (1768-1848), Jonathan Woodman (1798-1888), John Buzzell, Samuel Burbank (1792-1845), Elias Libby (1790-1871), and others) pooled $800 and formally organized the publishing entity Hobbs, Woodman & Co. One of those founders, Elder Elias Libby, was a businessperson who offered rooms and an office at an affordable rate in Limerick, ME. Elders John Buzzell and Samuel Burbank served as the first two editors, and the company hired William Burr (1806-1866), a young printer, to run the press. On May 11, 1826, the first issue of the Morning Star was published in Limerick.
Soon printer William Burr had converted to the faith, and he earned the titles of office editor and publishing agent, the first of many roles Burr held with the paper until the end of his life in 1866. Distant from major mail routes, and with more than 1,600 subscribers regionally by 1833, the Star soon outgrew Limerick, ME. Burr, sensing this growth, and the need for a dedicated press arm akin to other faith groups, advocated at the Freewill Baptist General Conference for a broader publishing organization. The Conference voted in agreement and created the Freewill Baptist Printing Establishment, which shortly bought the Morning Star. This expansion further cemented their need to move operations, and on November 14, 1834, the Star published their first issue in Dover, NH.
It was around this time that the paper began to take a stronger political stance on abolition, marked by then-editor Samuel Beede’s (1799-1834) editorial on February 27, 1834, entitled “Slavery and Abolition,” which argued that the North was comparably guilty of the horrors of slavery. Beede wrote, “And since the friends of emancipation, or their ancestors, have been accessories in the affair, as well as partakers of the wealth acquired by slavery, does it not belong to them, in addition to refunding the money received for slaves, to bear their equal part with the slave-holders in educating the blacks, and fitting them to become freemen?” It was not long before the paper, in its reformatory purpose, had a department dedicated to “Slavery,” alongside “Temperance” and “Females.” By no means radical, the Freewill Baptists argued in favor of gradual emancipation and moral suasion to end Slavery, in opposition to the more activist (and typically secular) approaches elsewhere in New England. Still, the Star uniquely interpreted Christianity to be compatible with the abolitionist platform, where other abolitionists disregarded a Christian justification for abolishing slavery.
This stance sparked controversy throughout the region and even within the denomination. Especially in the South, subscribers ordered their papers to be discontinued, while the Legislature of New Hampshire refused to incorporate the Freewill Baptist Printing Establishment, which faced crippling debt at the time. Still, the paper held the course and received denominational support at the General Conference of Freewill Baptists in 1835, which declared in favor of abolition. By 1846, public sentiment toward abolition had grown more favorable, marked by John P. Hale’s (1806-1873) election out of Dover, NH, to the US Senate on an openly abolitionist platform. The Star continued to expand its influence and push its anti-slavery platform, amassing 11,000 subscribers by 1851. Reverend Jonathan McDuffee Brewster, in his Life of William Burr (1871), describes Burr’s triumphant declaration at the General Conference of 1865 following the conclusion of the Civil War: “Since the last Conference the Star has had the unspeakable joy of announcing the most important event of the nineteenth century… the final death of American slavery.”
The Star continued to circulate while switching operations back and forth between Dover, NH, and Boston, MA, with its last issue published in 1904. Other editors of the Star included Oren B. Cheney (1816-1903), George T. Day (1822-1875), and George H. Ball (1819–1907).
Provided By: Dartmouth CollegeAbout this Newspaper
Title
- Morning Star (Limerick, Me.) 1826-1904
Names
- Beede, Samuel, 1799-1834, editor
- Burr, William, 1806-1866, editor
- Free Will Baptists (1780?-1911), publishers
Dates of Publication
- 1826-1904
Created / Published
- Limerick, Me. : Hobbs, Woodman & Co., 1826-1904.
Headings
- - Baptists--Newspapers
- - Limerick (Me.)--Newspapers
- - Dover (N.H.)--Newspapers
- - Portland (Me.)--Newspapers
- - Baptists
- - Maine--Limerick
- - Maine--Portland
- - New Hampshire--Dover
- - United States--Massachusetts--Suffolk--Boston
- - United States--Maine--York--Limerick
- - United States--New Hampshire--Strafford--Dover
- - United States--Maine--Cumberland--Portland
- - United States--New York--New York--New York
- - United States--Illinois--Cook--Chicago
- - United States--New Hampshire--Stafford--Dover
Genre
- Newspapers
- Anti-slavery newspapers
Notes
- - Weekly
- - Vol. 1, no. 1 (May 11, 1826)-v. 79, no. 30 (July 28, 1904).
- - Edited by: Samuel Beede, 1826-1834; William Burr, 1834-
- - Published by: D. Marks, <1833>; Trustees of the Freewill Baptist Connection,
- - Published in Dover, N.H., Nov. 14, 1833-Dec. 30, 1874; Boston, Mass., Jan. 6, 1875-Dec. 25, 1878; Dover, N.H., Jan. 1, 1879-Oct. 8, 1885; Boston, Mass., Oct. 15, 1885-July 28, 1904.
- - Published simultaneously in Portland, Me., Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y. and Chicago, Ill. at different times.
- - Issues for have also whole number <1983->
- - Also issued on microfilm by American Theological Library Association.
- - Merged with: Free Baptist (Minneapolis, Minn.), to form: Morning star and free Baptist.
- - Free Baptist (Minneapolis, Minn.) (DLC)sn 83025965 (OCoLC)8782825
- - Morning star and free Baptist (DLC) 00221922 (OCoLC)9208268
Medium
- 79 volumes : illustrations ; 48 cm
Call Number/Physical Location
- BX6370 .M7
- BX6370
Library of Congress Control Number
- sn84024361
OCLC Number
- 11241045
Succeeding Titles
LCCN Permalink
Additional Metadata Formats
Availability
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