The ''Liberia Herald'', founded in 1826 is the first
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
ever published in
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
which at the time was a
colony
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...
. It was founded by Charles Force who died shortly after the first issue was published.
In March 1827 Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm founded ''
Freedom's Journal'', the first African American newspaper in New York, as co-editors. In 1829 Russwurm resigned and emigrated to Liberia under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, there founding the ''Liberia Herald''. From 1830 to 1834, the chief editor of the ''Liberia Herald'' was a
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
n-born
mulatto
( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...
educated in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
John Brown Russwurm. He resigned in early 1835.
The
Liberian National Museum in
Monrovia
Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...
is in possession of some of the earliest editorials of ''The Herald''.
BBC News
18 May 2005, Retrieved on May 4, 2008
See also
* List of newspapers in Liberia
Mass media in Liberia include the press, radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Much of Liberia's communications infrastructure was destroyed or plundered during the First Liberian Civil War, two civil wars (1989–19 ...
References
External links
''Liberia Herald'' issues 1842–1857
available at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
BBC "''Story of Africa''"
-an insight into the earliest African newspapers.
Newspapers published in Liberia
Newspapers established in 1826
1826 establishments in Liberia
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