The Library of Congress > Chronicling America > The free press.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more

Title:
The free press. [volume] : (Charleston, S.C.) 1868-186?
Place of publication:
Charleston, S.C.
Geographic coverage:
  • Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina  |  View more titles from this: City County, State
Publisher:
T. Hurley
Dates of publication:
1868-186?
Description:
  • Began with Mar. 28, 1868 issue.
Frequency:
Weekly
Language:
  • English
Subjects:
  • African American newspapers--South Carolina.
  • African American newspapers.--fast--(OCoLC)fst00799278
  • African Americans--South Carolina--Newspapers.
  • African Americans.--fast--(OCoLC)fst00799558
  • Charleston (S.C.)--Newspapers.
  • South Carolina--Charleston.--fast--(OCoLC)fst01204603
  • South Carolina.--fast--(OCoLC)fst01204600
Notes:
  • Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • Available on microfilm from the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service.
  • Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 2 (Apr. 5, 1868).
  • Latest issue consulted: Vol. 1, no. 3 (Apr. 11, 1868).
LCCN:
sn 83025795
OCLC:
9803310
ISSN:
2166-1715
Related Links:
Holdings:
View complete holdings information
View
First Issue Last Issue

The free press. [volume] April 5, 1868 , Image 1

Browse:

Calendar View

All front pages

First Issue  |  Last Issue

The Free Press

The Charleston Free Press, a “weekly journal devoted to the interests of the Republic Party of South Carolina,” was one of a number of short-lived Republican newspapers published in the Low Country region of South Carolina during the Reconstruction era (1865-77). Strictly speaking, the Free Press was not an African American newspaper, but it clearly sought to influence African American voters. Only two issues, filmed at the request of the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies, are known to exist.  

Timothy Hurley, formerly with the Charleston South Carolina Leader, established the Free Press in 1868. He chose as its motto: “Justice to all men, regardless of race, color, or previous condition.” According to the American Newspaper Directory, published by George Presbury Rowell and Company, the Free Press circulated 2,000 copies.

An analysis of the two extant issues, dated April  4 and 11, 1868, indicates that the Free Press was very narrow in its scope. Contents include: a biographical sketch of African American legislator James Henry Harris, a leader in North Carolina’s Republican Party; a list of South Carolina Republican Party candidates running for office in 1868; a speech by Daniel Henry Chamberlain, Berkeley County delegate to the state constitutional convention (and later governor), on the invalidation of slave debts; and a defense of so-called carpetbaggers as “industrious, enterprising, and unexceptional in character.” The issues contain few advertisements and almost no domestic news coverage, excepting reports on the activities of Republican Party organizers around South Carolina.

In Republican Newspapers of South Carolina, Robert Woody suggests that Timothy Hurley only published the Free Press for the weeks leading up to the elections. William King, the author of Newspaper Press of Charleston, S.C., indicates that the Free Press had definitely ceased by October 1868. Hurley later served as Charleston County treasurer and representative (1870-74). Sometime thereafter, he made his way to Europe, perhaps to his father’s native country of Ireland.

Provided by: University of South Carolina; Columbia, SC