Heading: (African American, 1863)
Author: Sears, Joseph H., publisher
Title: The New South
Place Published: Port Royal, South Carolina
Publisher:
Date Published: 1863
Description: Vol. 1, No. 22; Jan 24, 1863. 4 pp. 13x9¾", complete single issue of the weekly newspaper.One of only 67 issues of the Civil War newspaper of the Union-occupied Port Royal, South Carolina. Rare early memorabilia of the Port Royal Experiment that saw 10,000 Blacks forming the first community of self-governing ex-slaves in America.Five months after Union forces captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and strategic Port Royal, Boston storekeeper Joseph Sears was appointed U.S. Army Postmaster of Union-occupied Port Royal. He set up a printing press in the Post Office, which also doubled as a dry goods store for the troops, and launched this weekly newspaper for thousands of news-hungry Occupation soldiers and sailors and a few dozen New England missionaries who had come South to aid the additional thousands of freed slaves abandoned by their Confederate masters after the Union victory.

All the ex-slaves were presumed to be illiterate so it was not for their immediate benefit that in the preceding issue, Sears published the text of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, with this proviso: "...there are honest differences of opinion as to its wisdom and efficacy in promoting the legitimate objects of the war; but...there is left for the army and country no other course than an earnest support of the government in carrying its measures into effect", with the certainty that war's end would also spell the end of slavery, bringing "freedom forever" to the growing community of fugitive Southern Negroes who continued to congregate at Port Royal.
Some freed slaves could read, while others would listen attentively to news read to them by sympathetic soldiers and missionaries. One such article in this issue described "rejoicing over the promised Proclamation" in the Port Royal camp of contrabands (the half sarcastic military name for ex-slaves). And another reported the first "Black Brigade" of 700 South Carolina freedmen, addressed by the Port Royal commanding General, "congratulating them upon their fine appearance and their skill in the use of arms and expressing the hope that he might soon see 50,000 colored soldiers fighting the battles of the Union."

Horizontal crease, slight foxing; very good.