Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston, S.C.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
4,304 issues from 1837 to 1927, published in Spartanburg, South Carolina, digitised for Chronicling America.
The weekly Charleston Southern Christian Advocate carried the news for South Carolina Methodists through periods of denominational and regional division and reconciliation. Born out of a desire for a Methodist newspaper without abolitionist overtones, the Advocate served as witness to the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844, the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1846, and the reunification of the national and southern bodies in 1939. The Advocate mixed news of revivals and foreign missions with notices of marriages and warnings against the evils of "worldly amusements" like gambling, drinking, and attending theaters.
When the first issue of the Southern Christian Advocate appeared on June 24, 1837, its longevity was anything but assured. Editor William Capers doubled as bookkeeper; the publishers contracted with local printers as they had no press of their own. The Advocate grew along with the Methodist Church in South Carolina, however, acquiring a printing press in 1843 and even earning a profit in 1848. Francis Asbury Mood contributed historical sketches of the Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1856. Joseph Cross penned a series of travel letters titled "European Impressions" the following year.
On the eve of the Civil War, the Southern Christian Advocate claimed 11,725 subscribers. The war, however, brought lean times. By 1864, the Advocate had been reduced to two pages; a subscription cost $10.00 (double its…
- Genres
- Religion, News
- Published in
- Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress