An Increasingly Untenable Position: The Kalamazoo Gazette and the Rise of Abolitionism in Southwestern Michigan

Abstract

My primary source, the Kalamazoo Gazette began operation in 1833 as the Statesman from White Pigeon Michigan, with Mr. H. Gilbert as the primary editor. The paper was Democratic and promoted the party's agenda and the editor, Gilbert, was an influential local party leader. Newspapers in 19th century America were political and engaged in active promotion of a particular agenda and the party platform. In 1837 Gilbert moved the paper to Kalamazoo Michigan, and changed the name to the Kalamazoo Gazette. He operated the paper with periodic co-editors until he finally sold the paper in 1845 to Mr. Volney Hascal. Hascal operated the paper until 1862 with occasional co-editors, and was instrumental in the Gazette's success and growth in Kalamazoo. The Gazette was the regional paper that carried governmental laws, proclamations, and land sales, this meant increased readership. This gave the paper a distinct advantage in the Kalamazoo market over the rival Kalamazoo Telegraph, founded in 1844 by George Torrey that promoted first the Whig and then Republican Parties, because the Gazette received government printing contracts. This allowed the Democratic Gazette to thrive in Kalamazoo that was dominated, with the rest of Western Michigan, by the Whig party.