The Image and the Perception of the Turk in Freedom's Journal

Abstract

The importance of Freedom's Journal to African American society as the first African American newspaper in the United States is indisputable. News and articles that were published in this newspaper had great impact on African American society of the nineteenth century. The newspaper had a crucial role in creating consciousness about racism and slavery problems in the United States. Freedom's Journal was also trying to raise awareness within the ranks of African Americans regarding the problem of slavery in other countries and was furthermore committed to enlightening African Americans about those distant countries. The Ottoman Empire was one of those “distant and unknown countries,” especially for African Americans in those years (1820s). In this article, the perception of “the Turk” in Freedom's Journal has been examined through published news, poems, and articles that were especially focused on the Greek Uprising, Islam, the Janissaries, and the role of women in Ottoman society. Literature research techniques have been used as a method of research for this paper. In all, 103 issues of Freedom's Journal that were published weekly from 1827 to 1829 have been searched and all scripts that were related to subjects such as the Ottoman Empire, Islam, and the Greek Uprising have been examined.

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Notes on contributors

Erdem Güven

ERDEM GÜVEN, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and member of the faculty of communication at Kastamonu University, where he specializes in communication studies and Middle Eastern sociology. He has published several books and papers in Turkish and English related to intercultural communication, including “Kuzguncuk as a Village of Mutual Respect and Harmony” in the book Sites of Jewish Memory and Mekan-Kimlik-Yahudilik. Special acknowledgements to Dr. Mehmet Yilmazata, undersecreteriat of the Turkish Treasury, for his contributions to this article. Correspondence to [email protected].