Mystery (newspaper)

The Mystery (or the Pittsburgh Mystery) was a Pennsylvanian African American newspaper founded in 1843 by Martin Delany, a black activist and physician. It was a paper centered on the abolitionist movement, and attempted to foster feelings of pride in black life and culture, including black spiritual life. Delany left the paper in 1847 to work at another African American newspaper, the North Star. The paper either died that year, or it was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. If it was purchased, it survives today as the Christian Recorder.

Publication

The Mystery (also known as the Pittsburgh Mystery[1]) was founded in 1843 in Pittsburgh by Martin Delany, a black activist and physician, two years after a conference for free people of color in the city.[2] He was the editor and principal contributor to all of its issues,[3] which were printed with a Biblical quotation: "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians".[4] The title was a reference to its mission of, as historian Tunde Adeleke says, "enlighten[ing] blacks on the 'mystery' of their condition—i.e., means of elevation".[5]

The paper was made of four pages, and its main focus was abolitionism (the eradication of slavery) and the celebration of black life and culture, including black spiritual life.[6] It included news about developments in the abolitionist movement, coverage of events of interest to the black community, editorials—almost all written by Delany—and ads, including one advertisement for Delany's medical practice.[7] The paper also supported developing pride in an ancestral connection to Africa.[8] It was financially supported by Pittsburgh's black community, especially its women.[9]

The Mystery's original reporting was reprinted in other abolitionist and black newspapers, including the Palladium of Liberty and the Liberator.[10] Its reporting was more moderate than some of its competitors, including The Mirror of Liberty from New York.[11]

Delany resigned financial control of the Mystery in 1844;[9] the paper had trouble staying financially stable, and the group that took over was composed of black men from Pittsburgh.[12] In 1846, the paper's motto changed from its Biblical quotation to "Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not who would be free, themselves strike the blow?".[13] Delany left the paper in 1847 to work with Frederick Douglass at the North Star, another African American newspaper.[14]

At least one source, historian of African American studies James T. Campbell, says the paper died that year.[15] If it did not, then it was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1848, rebranded around that time as the Christian Herald, and later rebranded again as the Christian Recorder, its current name.[16] Delany died in 1885 after settling in North Carolina and aligning with its segregationist Democratic Party.[17] By 2003, only two issues of the paper had been located.[10]

References

Citations
  1. Adeleke 1994a, p. 253.
  2. Levine 2003, pp. 1, 26.
  3. Levine 2003, p. 26.
  4. Sterling 1971, p. 81.
  5. Adeleke 1994b, p. 23.
  6. Levine 2003, pp. 27, 69.
  7. Levine 2003, pp. 27, 32.
  8. Levine 2003, p. 316.
  9. Sterling 1971, p. 83.
  10. Levine 2003, p. 27.
  11. Hutton 1993, p. 45.
  12. Hutton 1993, pp. 17–18.
  13. Sterling 1971, p. 97.
  14. Levine 2003, p. 1.
  15. Campbell 2001, p. 130.
  16. Sterling 1971, p. 98.
  17. Hutton 1993, p. 162.

Bibliography
  • Adeleke, Tunde (1994a). "Black biography in the service of a revolution: Martin R. Delany in Afro-American historiography". Biography. 17 (3): 248–267. doi:10.1353/bio.2010.0267. JSTOR 23539977. S2CID 144514084.
  • Adeleke, Tunde (1994b). "Race and ethnicity in Martin R. Delany's struggle". Journal of Thought. 29 (1): 19–49. JSTOR 42589366.
  • Campbell, James T. (2001). "Redeeming the race: Martin Delany and the Niger Valley Exploring Party, 1859–60". New Formations (45).
  • Hutton, Frankie (1993). The early black press in America, 1827 to 1860. Contributions in Afro-American and African studies. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313286964.
  • Levine, Robert S. (2003). Martin R. Delany: A documentary reader. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807854310.
  • Sterling, Dorothy (1971). The making of an Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany, 1812–1885. Doubleday & Company.
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