Throughout history, societal taboos or events have often placed restrictions on the public expression or professional activities of certain groups, requiring writers to use a name other than their own. However, for James Redpath and many others in the 19th century, the different identity was a necessity. This veil of secrecy had been a ploy to safeguard their lives or to establish credibility for themselves while affording them the opportunity to speak out during blacks' struggles for freedom and equal rights. This study examines the role of Redpath, who not only wrote as a white abolitionist, but also assumed the persona of a black male in order to address a black audience and offer a voice during the antislavery movement.
To Liberator and National Anti-Slavery Standard readers he would be John Ball Jr., a young, free-born black man from Iowa. To readers of the Boston Daily Traveller, the New York Tribune, and numerous other mainstream newspapers, he was "Jacobius," "James Redpath," or several other pen names.
Redpath established his goal as one to "aid the slaves," no matter what. He declared that if he found the slaves to be contented with their condition, he would spend his time in the South "disseminating discontentment." But if the slaves were "ripe for a rebellion," he resolved to prepare the way for it.
He would become one of the first journalists to practice the brand of participatory journalism so prevalent 100 years later. His plan: to make several forays into slaveholding states to talk to the slaves himself; and to provide an eyewitness perspective on their condition. However, the correspondence he would send to the abolitionist and mainstream newspapers would be representative of white, as well as black, perspectives.
Dr. Kittrell Rushing or Dr. David Sachsman 311 Frist Hall Communication Department The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403-2598 http://www.utc.edu/commdept/conference/
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Last updated: November 20, 1999
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