In 1827, Freedom's Journal began publication in New York as the first African American-owned and operated newspaper in the United States. It answered racist attacks in the white press and reported on abolition, education, community life, and Black achievement. Its motto insisted that Black Americans wished to plead their own cause.

The newspaper created a public platform for Black essays, poems, notices, and political language. It helped build the print culture from which later African American poets drew themes of self-definition, citizenship, mourning, resistance, and collective uplift.