best. >> thank you. >> i know, you know, why historians, we just talk too much. that's why i kept going and going and going. >> is there any announcements for tomorrow? >> thank you so much for being here.

>> in the decades before the civil war. therefore, it was extremely important to the citizens of this state in providing a way of looking. at national, state and local issues. as they affected slavery or as slavery affected them. in 1836 men, they were all men, from across the state of michigan, which was only sparsely settled at that time. held in anti-slavery meeting. in ann arbor where we are.

and one of their goals was to sway people to have an anti-slavery stance. in order to do so, they felt they should have a newspaper. because they could disseminate information which would convince them that slavery was a wrong and evil and it was actually hurting the country. out of that meeting. and remember, this is a year before michigan is actually a state. out of that meeting came publication of a newspaper, led by two men, theodore foster who came from new england, his father was a u.s. senator. and reverend guy beckley who came from vermont. they managed to keep it going from 1841 to 1848. and that's amazing when you look at the history of newspapers in this country. in 1842, we still have the newspaper being published by the

executive committee of the anti-slavery society. and sullivan was the printer out of jackson county. that would change and take over this paper has an article here about written, describing frederick douglass. and it actually says he was first starting to and what it was like to be -- highest view-point that a slave could not necessarily be well educated. to hear these words spoken by and how eloquently he spoke we also have in this issue articles about supporting the liberty party.

liberty party electing people one issue on their platform. and that was ending slavery. another really important part of the newspaper is this. they always had a poetry and this one was by whittier, john greenleaf whittier, he published a number of poems that related to slavery and the sadnesss connected with those enslaved. you'll see in this issue, march

6, 1843, that now foster and beckley are the publishers of the newspaper. they will have taken over until 1847. when beckley resigned and foster then continued for some, at least another year. they had publishing information begging for subscriptions or wood or chickens or anything they could get in exchange for the newspaper. here's a poem again related to slaves by longfellow. they then included national news and michigan temperance society. doctrines at washington. so the national news was very important to include. they would sometimes follow that with discussions, or alternative

viewpoints that might, of an opposing view. the underground railroad had become quite effective by the 8 1840s and got to be very effective in the 1850s, and it was proven not only by the northerners making claims, but by people in slave-holding states. going to their legislature and saying help us retrieve our property. quote property. le here we have an article about the missouri legislature going to congress and saying to them that under the existing laws of canada, and the treaties between great britain and the united states, it is impossible to recover a slave who has once escaped to the canadian shore. and of course, what is the fastest way to get across? but from detroit, across the detroit river to get to canada, which is why michigan played

such an important role in the underground railroad. here we have them showing themselves to this whole country, that this issue had become a serious problem. and slaves weren't these contented folk as they claimed, they were escaping. permanently. from a life they no longer wanted to lead. they wanted their freedom. and they showed it to the world, so this newspaper said look here it is. getting toward the end of publication. 1847. at this time, beckley has bowed out of publishing. he's written personal letters where he said it was too great a hardship, he had many children and they were not getting enough to live on because he was putting so much money into the publication of the newspaper.

sadly, he died suddenly very shortly after this. theodore foster continued publishing. he found someone else to work with him. this is the next-to-last publication we have here. it was not able to continue without enough financial support. it was very effective in reaching thousands of people there were at least a couple thousand, over 2,000 people at one point subscribing to this newspaper. and like other newspapers, it opened an avenue for people to lead discussions in their own communities. it also upheld the liberty party and notified people where there would be liberty party meetings. anti-slavery meetings. it was the way to reach people. the citizens who needed to be involved and wanted to be

involved. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring ann arbor, michigan. our local content vehicles recently travelled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about ann arbor and c-span's local content vehicles, at c-span.org/local content. you're watching american history tv, all weekend. on c-span 3. >> at the direction of congress, the voices and experiences of the civil rights movement of the mid 20th century are being documented in an oral history project, a collaboration of the smithsonian museum of african-american history and culture. the library of congress and the southern oral history program at the university of north carolina chapel hill. in this interview we hear from marilyn hildreth who was eight years old when they infiltrated