The (New York) Journal of Commerce
Arthur Tappan, a merchant and reformer (like his brother, Lewis), founded the Journal of Commerce in 1827, establishing an editorial formula that combined sober coverage of mercantile issues -- the paper's correspondents sailed out in schooners to meet incoming transatlantic ships and scoop the latest European news -- with a reformist agenda; the paper refused to accept theater or lottery advertisements, for example. Within a year or so, Tappan had sold the paper to Gerard Hallock and David Hale. Like Tappan, Hallock and Hale were religious-minded, and they maintained the Journal's central focus on commerical and financial news.
Hallock was actually a Democrat and pro-slavery, or at any rate, pro-union and opposed to radical abolition. Still, the paper kept its reformist tone. And Hallock privately (and secretly) supported colonization projects, buying and freeing 100 slaves and paying their passage to Liberia. Thus the paper's coverage of the Amistad affair was distinctly sympathetic to the Africans and their bid for freedom: the paper that one Tappan brother had originally founded strongly supported the other's campaign to return the Africans to Africa.
Some key articles from the Journal of Commerce in the "Exploring Amistad" library include:
To see the entire collection of Journal of Commerce articles:September 10, 1839: An early visit to the jail with interpreters, to talk to the Africans.
October 9, 1839: Reports the Africans want to be taught to read and write.
October 10, 1839: A narrative of the Africans' ordeal, obtained through the abolitionists' interpreters.
December 25, 1839: Transcribes several letters from John Quincy Adams on the legal issues in the case.
January 10, 1840: Report on trial proceedings, including courtroom testimony from several of the Africans.
SOURCES:
Joseph P. McKerns, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Journalism (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989)
Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism, A History: 1690-1960 (3d. ed.,
New York: MacMillan, 1962)
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