Transcribed Newspaper Articles--Franklin County:
African-Americans/Race Relations

From William Still, The Underground Railroad. (Philadelphia: People's Publishing Company, 1879), 320-24.

• Valley Spirit, January 19, 1859, p. 1, c. 2: "A White Heiress Elopes with a Negro." Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press.

• Valley Spirit, February 16, 1859, p.5, c. 1: "A Row." A "negro boy" hit a white man with a stone and broke glass in a store window.

• Valley Spirit, March 2, 1859, p. 1, c. 5: "Miss Judson Goes to Indiana and Gets a Divorce." The sequel to the January 19th article. Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press.

• Franklin Repository and Transcript, March 16, 1859, p. 5, c. 1: "Arrests on Serious Charges." Dysart, of Waynesboro, was imprisoned in Baltimore for a scam in which he sold a man who he claimed was a slave.

• Valley Spirit, March 30, 1859, p. 4, c. 4: "How Our Negroes Live." Editorial asserts that the morals and manners of "our negroes" have not much improved since the publication of an article on "Uglow's Arcade" twelve years earlier.

• Valley Spirit, April 20, 1859, p. 5, c. 1: "Court Week." Complains that "Negro fights and petty assualt and battery cases" are clogging the local courts.

• Valley Spirit, April 20,1859, p. 5, c. 4: "A Good Idea." Endorses a proposal to devote a special term to trying cases involving blacks.

• Valley Spirit, April 20, 1859, p. 2, c. 6: "An Unworthy Hero." A fugitive slave, celebrated by abolitionists of Philadelphia, is accused of bigamy.

• Valley Spirit, April 20, 1859, p. 5, c. 2: "Toad Island." Buildings in black neighborhood of Chambersburg declared a public nuisance.

• Valley Spirit, July 6, 1859, p. 5, c. 2: "A Smash Up." A large frame building on Toad Island "was blown down and the material of which it was composed smashed up into very convenient firewood. The delectable inhabitants of the island took advantage of the disaster and their chimnies [sic.] were soon observed to smoke as they had seldom smoked before."

• Valley Spirit, July 20, 1859, p. 5, c. 4: "The Last Grand Battle." Satirical account of a fight among black residents of Toad Island that resulted in eight arrests. Author describes neighborhood as an "intolerable nuisance" and calls for its removal. He claims that "the cost of maintenance in prison of those who were lately put in, will far overbalance the taxes derived from such worthless property."

• Valley Spirit, July 27, 1859, p. 5, c. 2: "Toad Island." Editors note that Toad Island has "passed from under the control of the former proprietor into the hands of those who will soon rid our town of this plague-spot on its moral character."

• Valley Spirit, August 24, 1859, p. 5 , c. 2: "Fred. Douglas. [sic.]" Reports Douglass' visit to Chambersburg, but does not mention his meeting with John Brown. Compliments him on his oratory, but not his message.

• Franklin Repository and Transcript, August 24, 1859, p. 5, c. 1: "High Treason!" Frederick Douglass "delivered a flaming address to his friends and admirers" in the Chambersburg Public Hall the previous Saturday night. The principal editor of the Valley Spirit, John M. Cooper, sat in the front row -- "evidently as the 'right supporter' of the sable speaker." This compels the Franklin Repository editor to ask, "What expedients will not that party resort to in order to rescue their sinking political ship? . . . Are they now about to don the garb of abolitionism?"

• Franklin Repository and Transcript, August 24, 1859, p. 5, c. 3: "The Other Douglas. [sic]" Account of the recent speech by Frederick Douglass in the Chambersburg town hall, focusing on his oratory style and the reasons why the Repository believes immediate and unconditional emancipation is impossible.

• Franklin Repository and Transcript, September 14, 1859, p. 5, c. 3: "'The Bark James W. Page Has . . .'" Discusses the resettling of free blacks to Liberia, and includes one man's high praise for his new country.

• Valley Spirit, October 26, 1859, p. 4, c. 5: "A Colored Military Company, Disbanded." The state of Pennsylvania has seized the guns of a black militia company in Philadelphia.

• Franklin Repository and Transcript, February 22, 1860, p.6. c.1: "A Native African." Details and misadventures of an African visitor to Baltimore.

• Valley Spirit, April 11, 1860, p. 5, c. 2: "Music." Black musicians from Maryland visited Chambersburg recently, and the Spirit's editors claim that they returned to Maryland more satisfied with their condition than that of their free black brethren in Pennsylvania. After the concert, they visited with their "free brethren" in Chambersburg.

• Repository and Transcript, August 1, 1860, p. 4, c. 3: "Negro Voters." Criticizes the Spirit's discussions on "negro voting." The Repository reminds the Spirit that free blacks in Pennsylvania did have the right a few years ago, and they voted for the Democratic party. The Whigs took away their right to vote, so as to take away some support of locofocoism in Pennsylvania.

• Valley Spirit, August 8, 1860, p. 4, c. 3: "First of August." The Spirit mockingly describes the celebration of the First of August, which commemorates the emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies. The article jabs at the Transcript for supporting "this grand 'bobolition selbration' by hoisting a flag, or rather a rag, tied on a rail, from one of its port-holes, on which is the picture of a Crow with the name of Abe Lincoln underneath."

• Valley Spirit, June 5, 1861, p. 2, c. 2: "Horrible Occurrence." Report on the lynching in Chambersburg of a free black man by white soldiers. The incident began when "a number of soldiers, from different companies, collected in that disreputable quarter of our town, known as Wolfstown, and for some cause, that we have not been able to clearly ascertain, made an attack upon a house occupied by a colored man named Frank Jones." Article draws extensive details from the coroner's report.

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