EOTO 1: Frederick Douglass' The North Star

 Frederick Douglass' The North Star

    

    Frederick Douglass was a historic writer, editor, and social reformer who created what has been known as "the most influential black antislavery paper." Douglass founded and edited his first anti-slavery paper The North Star which was named after Polaris, the infamous star that guided slaves fleeing to the North for freedom. Douglass stated in one of the first publishings that the paper should be a "star of hope" to those reading. 

    No paper can be run by one man alone, so Douglass enlisted the help of Martin R. Delany and William Cooper Nell to serve as co-editor and publisher respectively. Delaney was an abolitionist, writer, soldier, and much more. He began publishing and writing a paper in Pittsburgh titled The Mystery and continued to do so until joining forces with Douglass to create The North Star. William Cooper Nell was a famous historian, civil rights activist, and abolitionist who worked towards the integration of schools and public facilities in his home state of Massachusetts. 

    The North Star was published weekly and was circulated to over 4,000 readers not only in America, but abroad as well. Unfortunately, there was a fire that destroyed almost all of what was had of the paper. The North Star ended up merging with the The Liberty Party Paper to form Frederick Douglass' Papers. This paper went against the nonvoting, pacifist views and actually agreed with the Constitution to support anti-slavery. This paper began to be published weekly, but transitioned to a monthly publishing schedule during the Civil War to help with recruitment and the acceptance of black troops. 

Works Cited 

• https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/delany-major-martin-robison-1812-1885/
•  https://nyheritage.org/collections/new-national-era
• https://aaregistry.org/story/the-new-national-era-newspaper-is-published/
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-North-Star-American-newspaper
• https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/educate/norths.html
• https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/new-national-era-encyclopedia-of-african-american-history-1619-18

Blog Post 1

Oh The Places You'll Go:

Deciding a career path

    Choosing what you want to do with your life is stressful, there are so many career paths to choose from. I spent a lot of my high school career attempting to find out what I wanted to major in when it came time for college. The problem was, there were so many things I wanted to do. I thought about culinary arts, education, philosophy, I even considered skipping college completely and enlisting in the military. Ultimately, I figured out those thing interested me, but they weren't something I thought I could happily do career-wise for the rest of my life. 

    I had always loved writing, I enjoyed asking questions, getting to know more about various people, and if I'm being honest, being nosey about people's business. My eighth grade english teacher was the first one to mention journalism to me, she thought I'd be a good addition to the school newspaper. I decided I'd try it out and I absolutely fell in love. There was so much to write about, you could find a story anywhere. I continued with the paper throughout my time in high school. It was the halfway point of my junior year when I was picked to be the Senior Editor-In-Chief of the paper that I knew journalism was the way I needed to go. I helped start the broadcast portion of the class my senior year, acting as a color commentator for the basketball games and various other sporting events. The more I did in the class the more I realized just how much I truly loved journalism. So when I applied to colleges, I checked the box "journalism" on all my applications. 

    I came to High Point feeling great about my journalism decision, but my heart was feeling a little torn. Criminal justice really intrigued me from the time I was little, I told my parents all the time I wanted to become a secret agent when I grew up. I think that's part of the reason I considered the military. There was just something about it that always kept my mind coming back. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with that, but I was constantly looking more and more into it. There was still a part of my heart that really wanted to be an agent or a police officer. I think it stemmed from my constant want to create change, make the world better, I thought being part of the justice system could do that. Obviously there are investigative reporters and other ways that the two worlds could meet, but I wasn't sure. It was the summer leading up to my sophomore year at HPU that I spent most of my time looking at journalism opportunities in the justice system world. I had no idea there was so much a communications major could do in the field. I saw that you could be a communications liaison for police department, but what got me the most excited was seeing that was something I could do for the FBI my heart felt full. So, first semester sophomore year I walked into the registrars office and officially added a second major: criminal justice. 

    Being a double major has definitely had its ups and downs, but I have loved every second. When my classes in the two different areas start to connect in some way I get so excited. Finding something you love is easy, but finding something you'd love to do for years to come is so stressful, especially when you feel like you are limited to just one area. I never knew double major was really an option, finding that I could do more than one thing I loved really opened doors for me, and I'm so excited to see where I go from here.