True American
Title
True American
Description
"Devoted to Universal Liberty; gradual Emancipation in Kentucky; Literature; Agriculture; the Elevation of Labor, Morally and Politically; Commercial Intelligence, &c. &c."
Printed in Lexington and Cincinnati (though it always carried the Lexington dateline) from June 3, 1845 - September 21, 1846, the True American was published by William L. Neale with Cassius M. Clay as editor. But, make no mistake, Clay was leading the way.
As a young Law student at Yale, Clay had heard William Lloyd Garrison, founder of The American Anti-Slavery Society, speak several times. Garrison inspired him to do something about the "evils" of slavery, which eventually lead to his editorial pursuits with the True American. It put him in a precarious position as his parents were large slave owning people in Madison County, Kentucky. And, even though the issue had been proposed many times, the majority of the state had rejected abolition because they could never come to terms with compensation for the slave owners or colonization of the slaves.
Lexington, Kentucky, where the True American took root, hosted one of the South's largest slave trade markets, and Clay's abolitionist efforts drew the ire of many in the area, including his family. According to Herndon J. Evans in The Newspaper Press In Kentucky, "Number 3, North Mill Street, was the site of the office, where Lexington was treated to its first newspaper plant armed with two brass cannons, iron barred windows, and an arsenal of Mexican lances and pikes. A trapdoor in the roof provided an escape route in case the editor and his helper found they could not hold the fort in an attack. In the basement, Clay had rigged up an "infernal machine" with a powder keg that he could set off from the outside to blow up the building and whoever was in it should the attackers succeed in taking over the plant."
Clay was first burned out of his downtown printing office, and the paper suspended Aug. 17-Sept. 23, 1845, when enemies removed the press to Cincinnati, Ohio. However, Clay refused to be deterred and printed the paper from his Cincinnati location Sept. 30, 1845-Oct. 21, 1846 when Clay finally folded the True American. The Examiner, spearheaded by one of Clay's assistant editors, John Champion Vaughan, took up the the True American abolitionist mantel in 1847 in Louisville.
Printed in Lexington and Cincinnati (though it always carried the Lexington dateline) from June 3, 1845 - September 21, 1846, the True American was published by William L. Neale with Cassius M. Clay as editor. But, make no mistake, Clay was leading the way.
As a young Law student at Yale, Clay had heard William Lloyd Garrison, founder of The American Anti-Slavery Society, speak several times. Garrison inspired him to do something about the "evils" of slavery, which eventually lead to his editorial pursuits with the True American. It put him in a precarious position as his parents were large slave owning people in Madison County, Kentucky. And, even though the issue had been proposed many times, the majority of the state had rejected abolition because they could never come to terms with compensation for the slave owners or colonization of the slaves.
Lexington, Kentucky, where the True American took root, hosted one of the South's largest slave trade markets, and Clay's abolitionist efforts drew the ire of many in the area, including his family. According to Herndon J. Evans in The Newspaper Press In Kentucky, "Number 3, North Mill Street, was the site of the office, where Lexington was treated to its first newspaper plant armed with two brass cannons, iron barred windows, and an arsenal of Mexican lances and pikes. A trapdoor in the roof provided an escape route in case the editor and his helper found they could not hold the fort in an attack. In the basement, Clay had rigged up an "infernal machine" with a powder keg that he could set off from the outside to blow up the building and whoever was in it should the attackers succeed in taking over the plant."
Clay was first burned out of his downtown printing office, and the paper suspended Aug. 17-Sept. 23, 1845, when enemies removed the press to Cincinnati, Ohio. However, Clay refused to be deterred and printed the paper from his Cincinnati location Sept. 30, 1845-Oct. 21, 1846 when Clay finally folded the True American. The Examiner, spearheaded by one of Clay's assistant editors, John Champion Vaughan, took up the the True American abolitionist mantel in 1847 in Louisville.
Publisher
William L. Neale
Date
1845-1846
Identifier
LCCN: sn84024557
Source
Relation
Photo of standing Cassius M. Clay (displayed above) available in Kentucky Digital Library.
Brief biography of Clay available in Encyclopedia Britannica.
Letters of Cassius M. Clay - Slavery: the evil--the remedy - available from the Internet Archive.
Photo of seated Cassius M. Clay (displayed above) available from the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Cassius M. Clay gravesite via Find a Grave.
Subject
Coverage
Kentucky, Fayette, Lexington
Ohio, Hamilton, Cincinnati
Rights
United States newspapers published before 1924 are in the public domain and free of copyright restrictions. Use of pre-1924 KDNP materials should be cited to "Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program, University of Kentucky Libraries."
Reprint use of newspapers published after 1923 require permission from the newspaper's publisher. KDNP cannot grant use on the publisher's behalf. If you have any questions concerning U.S. Copyright Law, please visit https://www.copyright.gov/
Reprint use of newspapers published after 1923 require permission from the newspaper's publisher. KDNP cannot grant use on the publisher's behalf. If you have any questions concerning U.S. Copyright Law, please visit https://www.copyright.gov/
Text
Editor: Cassius M. Clay; preceding title True American and western monitor LCCN: sn82014151 Digitized from UK Libraries holdings with additional source documents graciously provided by Wisconsin Historical Society and the Lexington Public Library. This is the most complete run of the True American.
Objectives
Contact us if you have the single missing issue of this newspaper.
Collection
Citation
“True American,” KDNP Feature Library, accessed April 20, 2024, https://kdnpx.omeka.net/items/show/13.