The Black newspaper and the chosen nation

"The Black Newspaper and the Chosen Nation shows how antebellum African-Americans used the newspaper as a means of translating their belief in black "chosenness" into plans and programs for black liberation. During the decades leading up to the Civil War, the ida that God had marked black Americans as his chosen people on earth became a central article of faith in northern black communities, with black newspaper editors articulating it in their journals. Benjamin Fagan examines how the early black press helped shape the relationship between black chosenness and the struggles for black freedom and equality in America, in the process transforming the very notion of a chosen American nation." From cover.