The Colored American Archive

In October 1865, John T. Shuften, an African American lawyer, newspaper editor, and native Georgian, published a prospectus promoting the Colored American in the Anglo-African. The Colored American was the first African American newspaper in Georgia. The paper's purpose was "to be a vehicle for the diffusion of Religious, Political and General Intelligence." It would be "devoted to the promotion of harmony and good-will between the whites and colored people of the South." The Colored American's first issue was published in December 1865 in Augusta, GA. It was a weekly, four-page, five-columned, Republican paper. The paper circulated information for newly-freed African Americans, their churches, and their White allies. Shuften received assistance from the African Methodist Episcopal community and its ministers. These ministers were well-known African American leaders such as James Lynch, an educator and minister from Baltimore, MD, and W. J. White, a carpenter, editor, and minister also from Georgia. Thomas P. Beard would act as the paper's business manager, agent, and editor.

The Colored American represented a hopeful Reconstruction period. African Americans were increasingly attempting to reverse the harmful consequences of the Civil War and slavery. It focused on local, state, and national issues regarding the enfranchisement and rights of Georgian African Americans. Under the motto "Harmony and Good Will Towards All Men," the Colored American also sought out advertisers, writers and poets, and corresponding agents from the African American and White communities in Augusta. Amongst these advertisements were "Information Wanted" notices, efforts from newly-freed African Americans to find sold, kidnapped, and missing family members. Other contents of the paper included literary columns such as a poetry section containing the original poem "Ethiopia's Dead," by Shuften's wife, Sarah E. Shuften; lifestyle and funny columns; and opinion pieces. The paper also circulated church records and activities, school records, and convention proceedings.

Despite this support and engagement, the Colored American folded in January 1866 due to financial difficulties. In the same month, African American men in Augusta formed the Georgia Equal Rights Association, which purchased the Colored American on January 20, 1866, and renamed it the Loyal Georgian. Captain J.E. Bryant would become the editor and Beard remained the agent. This paper extended the legacy of the Colored American into the early 1870s.

Note: A portion of the issues digitized for this newspaper were microfilmed as part of the Miscellaneous Negro newspapers microfilm collection, a 12-reel collection containing issues of African American newspapers published in the U.S. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Creation of the microfilm project was sponsored by the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies in 1947. For more information on the microfilm collection, see: Negro Newspapers on Microfilm, a Selected List (Library of Congress), published in 1953. While this collection contains selections from more than 150 U.S. newspapers titles, for further coverage, view a complete list of all digitized African American titles available in the Chronicling America collection.