Content Analysis - Essays in this Section
The Unionist was published during the tumultuous second term of President Andrew Jackson, and it was a decidedly anti-Jacksonian paper. Every complete issue makes this evident, with support for Whig and Anti-Masonic candidates, and fulminating against the President’s position in the Banking crisis. Of course, most of the opponents of the Canterbury Female Academy – such as Andrew Judson, Philip Pearl, and James Holbrook, editor of the Windham Advertiser - were Jacksonian Democrats. However opposed the Abolitionists were to the anti-Abolitionist President Jackson and his uncouth ways and followers, it was precisely this Jacksonian populism that enriched the “media environment” with more newspapers and more robust discussion.
The Unionist covered some major news stories, and followed the journalistic procedure of reprinting short notices from other newspapers. Due to the connection with Arthur Tappan, The Unionist was also tied in to the evangelical press in New York, giving it access to stories from The Genius of Temperance and the Chinese Repository, the latter being an organ of Protestant missionaries in China.
For Further Reference
- Huntzicker, William. The Popular Press, 1833–1865. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
- Richards, Leonard L. “Gentlemen of Property and Standing:” Anti-Abolition Mobs in Jacksonian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970
- Sinha, Manisha. The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
- Werner, John M. Reaping the Bloody Harvest: Race Riots in the United States during the Age of Jackson 1824-1849. New York: Garland, 1986.
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