The Morning Star (19th century U.S. newspaper)

The Morning Star was a weekly newspaper owned and published by Freewill Baptists in 19th-century New England, which campaigned vigorously for the abolition of slavery long before such a political stance was widely considered to be respectable in America.

The first issue was published in Limerick, Maine on 11 May 1826. Seven years later the newspaper relocated to Dover, New Hampshire, and it continued to be published in that town by Moses Cheney from November 1833 until December 1874. Thereafter it was published in various cities including Portland, Boston, New York and Chicago, until its final issue rolled off the presses in 1911.

An early editor was John Buzzell, who was also partly responsible for the foundation of the paper.

Until 1834 the newspaper concerned itself mainly with religion, and largely kept out of politics. When it commented on slavery it took a conservative attitude, with editorials denouncing radical abolitionists and counseling "the exercise of moderation and charity".

On the death of the editor Samuel Beede in March 1834, however, control was passed to William Burr, who immediately re-launched The Morning Star as a newspaper that would campaign vigorously and tirelessly for the complete abolition of slavery. This was a remarkable position for an American publication to take at that time, especially in an overwhelmingly white town where the major employers were large cotton mills: Dover's prosperity depended to a great extent, indirectly, on slave labor in the South.

Burr's principled move plunged the newspaper rapidly into crisis. Publication had to be suspended for a while because the New Hampshire State Legislature refused to grant The Morning Star an Act of Incorporation on account of the paper's campaigning activities.

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