Making a Black Magazine

Thomas and Robert Hamilton’s Anglo-Africans

Black writing and organizing were multi-generational affairs, even in the early United States. Thomas (1823-1865) and Robert (1819-1870) Hamilton were a part of the first generation of Black New Yorkers who came of age in the wake of New York’s 1821 gradual emancipation law. They and their friends were born to parents who had fought in the Revolution, founded Black civic and religious institutions, and were among the earliest to lobby the newly minted state and federal governments for emancipation and civil rights.

Their father, William Hamilton (1773-1836), was born free and was a leader in New York’s post-Revolutionary Black community. (Rumor has it that William’s father was Alexander Hamilton.) Thomas learned the print and newspaper trades as a youth on Manhattan’s famed “Printing House Square,” working for several papers, including Colored American, before publishing his first newspaper, People’s Press (1841). Robert was a prominent activist, journalist, and music teacher. He took up publishing duties as his brother’s health faded in the 1860s.

The Anglo-African Magazine, published by Thomas Hamilton. New York: January 1859-March 1860.

The Anglo-African magazine v.1 - Dumas portrait

Founded in 1859 by Thomas Hamilton, The Anglo-African Magazine was among the first Black-edited literary magazines. Its pages offered fiction, poetry, history, essays, and sheet music from a who’s-who of Black writers. This first volume features an image of Alexander Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers.

View selected pages from The Anglo-African Magazine's first volume

“Ira Aldridge.” The Anglo-African Magazine, January 1860.

The Anglo-African’s January 1860 issue opens with an 1852 image of Ira Aldridge, the world-renowned Shakespearean actor, in his role as Aaron in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Aldridge revised the play to depict Aaron, typically the central villain, as a tragic hero fighting to defend his marriage and mixed-race child.

The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (1 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (2 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (3 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (4 of 8)

The Weekly Anglo-African, published by Robert Hamilton. New York: 1859-1865. June 7, 1862.

“Man Must Be Free!—If Not Through Law, Why Then above the Law.” The Hamilton brothers founded The Weekly Anglo-African as a weekly counterpart to The Anglo-African Magazine. The paper would undergo several name changes over the years. Readers would come to rely on the paper for its Civil War coverage and as a space of robust community debate.

The Weekly Anglo-African (1 of 4)
The Weekly Anglo-African (2 of 4)
The Weekly Anglo-African (3 of 4)
The Weekly Anglo-African (4 of 4)

Anglo-African Magazine, October 1859.

The October 1859 issue of the Anglo-African Magazine featured an account of “The First Colored Convention” (1830); part one of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s short story, “The Two Offers”; James T. Holly’s “Thoughts on Hayti”; and an installment from William J. Wilson’s fictional “Afric-American Picture Gallery” series focused on the Underground Railroad.

The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (5 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (6 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (7 of 8)
The Anglo-African magazine v.2 (8 of 8)

William Hamilton. “Address to the Fourth Annual Convention of the Free People of Color of the United States.” Delivered June 2, 1834. New York: S.W. Benedict, 1834.

Robert and Thomas Hamilton’s father, William Hamilton (1773-1836), was a prominent organizer during the early phases of the Colored Conventions Movement and helped found Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-edited newspaper, in 1827. William Hamilton delivered this rousing address in his capacity as president of the 1834 Convention of Free People of Color (New York).

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection.

View Cornell's copy fully digitized

Transcribed minutes courtesy of the Colored Conventions Project

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