Racialized violence of Virginia Newspapers (1860-1930)
Atta Gould African Americans have been at the forefront of racialized cruelty since the first Africans were brought to the shores of the United in 1619. From the abuse of their labor to the blatant sacrilege of their bodies, African Americans have and continue to experience the brunt of American terror. But America’s brutality against African Americans isn’t a monolith. Sometimes it strays from its bold and consuming nature and hides in plain sight. From the 1830s to the 1950s, newspapers dominated as the main form of news media.[1] m-newspapers-city/.
In the early 1800s, newspapers began to experience a circulation boom. The total annual circulation of the newspapers between 1828 and 1840 skyrocketed from 68 million to 148 million. [2] This explains why by 1860, the number of newspapers had catapulted to 3000 from the 1800s 200 newspapers. While American newspapers saw dips and rises in consumption numbers between the years 1830 and 1950, newspapers entered the houses of Americans across the country. And mainstream newspapers have long been a sight of the violence America inflicts upon African Americans. Simultaneously, both during and after slavery, African American newspapers acted as a disruption to the anti-blackness foaming through the pages of white-American newspapers. This site examines both the violence of white Virginia newspapers and the strength of African American Virginia newspapers between 1860 and 1930 in order to draw implications. This will be executed by answering the question, “What are the implications of both white American from 1860 to 1930?”. To come to a conclusion, this site will examine this through two prongs, the differing purposes of the newspapers and the communicative strategies of the newspapers. This will be followed by its implications and, finally, a conclusion.
[1] “The Early Nineteenth-Century Newspaper Boom.” Omeka RSS. Accessed May 9, 2023. https://americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-antebellum-america/the-newspaper-boom#:~:text=Newspapers%20flourished%2C%20dramatically%2C%20in%20early,had%20more%20newspaper%20readers%2C%20too.
[2] “American Newspapers, 1800-1860: City Newspapers.” History Philosophy and Newspaper Library. Accessed May 9, 2023. https://www.library.illinois.edu/hpnl/tutorials/antebellu