Colored American Newspaper 341church, he celebrated its independence from white denomi-
national masters with a rousing sermon comparing African
Americans to the Israelites and the denominational split to
the end of the Babylonian captivity. Just three years later,
Coker took that parallel to its logical conclusions and em-
barked for Africa as a missionary under the auspices of the
African Colonization Society. His journal of these travels
provided the society with a rare voice of African American
support, given that most blacks felt the society was forcing
repatriation on African America. Coker embraced a new
life in Sierra Leone and was enthusiastic about the mission-
ary and commercial opportunities of his ancestral home.
He remained there until his death in 1846.
See also: African Methodist Episcopal Church; American
Colonization Society; Destination, Sierra LeoneKathryn Emily Loft onBibliography
Coker, Daniel. A Dialogue between a Virginian and an African
Minister. Baltimore, MD: Printed by Benjamin Edes, for Jo-
seph James, 1810.
Coker, Daniel. Journal of Daniel Coker, a Descendent of Africa,
from the Time of Leaving New York, in the Ship Elizabeth,
Capt. Sebor, on a Voyage for Sherbo, in Africa, in Company
with Th ree Agents, and About Ninety Persons of Colour. Balti-
more, MD: Published by Edward J. Coale, in aid of the funds
of the Maryland Auxiliary Colonization Society, 1820.
Wills, David W., and Richard Newman, eds. Black Apostles at
Home and Abroad: Afro-Americans and the Christian Mission
from the Revolution to Reconstruction. Boston: G. K. Hall,
1982.Colored American Newspaper
Th e Colored American was an African American newspaper
published between 1837 and 1841. Based in New York City,
the paper’s stated mission was racial advancement morally,
socially, and politically. Most importantly, it was committed
to full emancipation. Like most antebellum newspapers, the
Colored American had its ups and downs. Published weekly,
the Colored American was four to six pages in length and
started off with less than 100 subscribers who each con-
tributed two dollars annually. By its second year of publica-
tion, the editors boasted nearly 2,000 new subscribers and
more than 10,000 additional readers. Nevertheless, barriers
such as lack of suffi cient revenue from advertisements andCoker, Daniel
Daniel Coker (1780–1846), African American Methodist
churchman and memoirist, authored a famous refutation
of slavery in 1810. Born on a Maryland plantation, Coker
was the product of a union between a black slave and a
white servant woman. To conceal his heritage, he was reg-
istered as a son of a mulatto slave woman. As a boy, Coker
received an unusually good education as the companion of
his master’s son. Sometime in the last years of the 18th cen-
tury, Coker escaped to New York; there, he completed his
education and joined the Methodist Church. With the help
of several white patrons, he purchased his freedom and
settled in Baltimore, where he quickly cultivated a reputa-
tion as a competent church organizer, fi ery orator, and avid
abolitionist.
Th e publication of A Dialogue between a Virginian and
an African Minister (1810) solidifi ed Coker’s reputation as
an intellectual leader in the fi ght against slavery. Written in
the form of a Socratic dialogue, Dialogue off ers a discussion
between a black minister and a white slaveholder. Th e white
Virginian has sought out the black preacher in an eff ort to
refute his reputed opinions on the equality of the races.
Th us, the slaveholder proceeds to articulate every proslav-
ery argument imaginable, including arguments derived
from legal precedent, historical example, and most impor-
tantly, scriptural evidence. Although Coker’s black minister
adroitly defeats every proslavery argument, it is with the
biblical evidence that he has the most triumphant success.
Coker represents the black preacher as possessing a supe-
rior command of the scriptures; at one point, the minister
even teaches the slaveholder how to use a concordance so
that the Virginian can manage his biblical citations. Coker
thus establishes the African American minister as a signifi -
cant intellect to be reckoned with; civil and sophisticated,
the preacher embodies the highest standards of rhetorical
engagement. Furthermore, he is compelling: by the conclu-
sion of Dialogue, the white Virginian has agreed to off er
freedom to his slaves.
Underlying Coker’s dialogue was a common white
fear: that blacks were simply too sinful and too incom-
petent to be freed. Dialogue argued eff ectively that it was
slavery that fostered black sin. Th roughout his life, Coker
labored to demonstrate the morality of African Americans
despite their continued subjugation. As a leader in the AME