True Royalist and Weekly Intelligencer

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Publication

Text

Newspaper

Item Type

Newspapers

Description

The True Royalist And Weekly Intelligencer was a 4 page, weekly, newspaper edited and published by the Reverend Augustus R. Green of the British Methodist Episcopal Church. Samuel V. Berry was the assistant editor. It was published every Thursday (later Friday) morning from no. 1, Goyeau Street, Windsor, and cost $1.50 per year in advance. Its masthead proclaimed the paper to be “Devoted to Universal Liberty, Emigration, Temperance, Religion, Agriculture, Science, Literature, And General News”. The True Royalist was probably intended, at least in part, to fill the gap created by the demise of the Provincial Freeman. In the prospectus, the Reverend Green writes: “The period has now arrived when a field for mental development must be opened and there can be no hope, unless it is in a periodical of our own, for the brightest genius of our race to exhibit his talent in a literary way.”

The True Royalist did contain many articles on the anti-slavery movement, emancipation, fugitive slaves, and the situation of black refugees in Canada West. Although the earliest issues of the newspaper are no longer extant, it must have been publishing in mid-April 1860 because an article from the True Royalist entitled “Wealth of the Negros in Canada” was reprinted in the Anti-Slavery Bugle (New-Lisbon, Ohio) on page 3, April 28th, 1860. As the name of the newspaper indicates, it supported the British presence in North America, and there were stories on the Queen’s birthday celebrations and later on the visit to Windsor by the Prince of Wales on September 20th 1860. The Reverend Green was, in fact, appointed to present a special letter to him (article reprinted in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, page 1, September 22nd, 1860). The newspaper also reported on U.S. politics and the civil war, Canadian politics, and also some of the religious politics of the AME/BME churches. In addition, Reverend Green seemed to have a bit of a penchant for stories about serious crime and macabre accidents, e.g. “A Newly Born Child Devoured By Rats” and “A Philadelphia Horror” (May 10th, 1860, page 1). He, himself, became embroiled in a major scandal in the Summer of 1860, which was reported on in a very racist article published in the Detroit Free Press (August 19th, 1860, page 1). Essentially, he accused a man of raping his daughter, but the man was acquitted. His 2 sons then badly beat the man, and were subsequently arrested and locked up. Green apparently wrote about the case in the newspaper. The author speculates that the True Royalist would have to be suspended, because it was the sons who helped Reverend Green publish the paper. This may well have been what happened! However, by the June 21st, 1861 issue, on page 2, Reverend Green reports that they “have now been forwarding the Royalist regularly to [our] subscribers for the last 5 months”. There is no evidence that this issue was the last, so the True Royalist may have continued to appear for quite a while longer.

The Reverend Green was born about 1815 in the United States. He served as a pastor of the Bethel American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Cincinnati from 1846 – 1850 and was actively involved in helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada. In the early to mid-1850s, the Reverend Green moved to Windsor with his family. In 1856, the AME churches in Canada formed a separate church called the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church with Willis Nazrey as its Bishop. In 1856, the Windsor congregation built a new brick church at 363 McDougall Street, on the west side, near Assumption Street. This remained their home until 1963, when the current church was built at the corner of University and Louis Avenues. The Reverend Green had always been involved in the publishing of religious works and also church newspapers (e.g. the Missionary Messenger, the Christian Herald, and the Christian Recorder), so he was a natural to start the True Royalist in the Spring of 1860. In June 1862, Green split from the BME Church and was elected Bishop of a breakaway group called the Independent Methodist Episcopal Church. However, after the Civil War, he returned to the United States and the AME Church. He died in Mississippi in 1878.

Publisher

Reverend Augustus R. Green; Samuel V. Berry, assistant editor.

Place of Publication

Windsor, ON

Language of Item

English

Geographic Coverage