OUR HISTORY

On October 27, 1847, at the age of twenty-nine, Frederick Douglass wrote a letter to a close friend and abolitionist supporter, “My Dear Amy [Post], I have finally decided on publishing the North Star in Rochester [NY] and to make that city my future home.”

The first edition of The North Star rolled off the presses on December 3, 1847. The letters inserted into the masthead made the intent of the paper clear: “The object of the North Star will be to attack slavery in all its forms and aspects; advocate universal emancipation; exalt the standard of public morality; promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the colored people; and hasten the day of freedom to the three millions of our enslaved fellow countrymen."

When Douglass’s paper was first published, he understood that it was of vital importance to create a mouthpiece for enslaved and oppressed people. With the large disparity in the amount of Black and Brown authors in the book publishing industry, the Frederick Douglass Books imprint will take its cue from The North Star and continue the educational work of Frederick Douglass by giving an opportunity to those with a message for the world.