Draft:Independent Monitor

The Independent Monitor was a newspaper in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from 1837-1872. It had a series of publishers. Publication was suspended during the Civil War by order.[1] It was shut down again in 1868 by federal authorities in response to anti-"carpetbagger" and anti-"scalawag" content including cartoons.[2] That year it ran an editorial accompanied by cartoon of two "carpetbagger" educators, including Methodist minister Arad S. Lakin who was appointed president of University of Alabama, being hung from a tree (lynched).[3][4]

In 1867, former Confederate officer Ryland Randolph acquired the paper.[5] In 1869 Randolph published an editorial declaring it a "White Man's Newspaper", advocating white supremacy, opposing military commissions, and aligning with the Democratic Party.[6]

The Independent Monitor was "continued by the Tuscaloosa Times in 1872."[7]

In 1843 editor M. D. J. Slade published Heads of the Alabama Legislature at the Session of 1842-43.[8] In 1857, a letter to the editor notes frustrations with maintenance of Greenwood Cemetery and the transfer of remains to then new Greenwood Cemetery.[9] It reported on the legislative session including railroad construction, "insane asylum" and university funding, local businesses, and printed a pro-slavery speech by L. G. Garland March 10, 1860.Alfred Robertson was editor and proprietor.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "The Independent Monitor (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) 1837-1872". Library of Congress.
  2. ^ "CONTENTdm".
  3. ^ "Klan Cartoon, 1868".
  4. ^ "From the Independent Monitor, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, September 1, 1868: A prospective scene in the City of Oaks, 4th of March, 1869".
  5. ^ "The Tuscaloosa Boogeyman: The Forgotten Story of an Alabama Monster". 22 November 2021.
  6. ^ "The Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor "Takes its stand" as a "White Man's Newspaper" March 1869". 29 February 2020.
  7. ^ "CONTENTdm".
  8. ^ "Heads of the Alabama legislature: At the session of 1842-3".
  9. ^ "Evergreen Cemetery Historical Marker".
  10. ^ "Garland address, the Independent Monitor, 10 Mar 1860 · the History of Enslaved People at UA, 1828-1865 · the History of Enslaved People at UA".