"Freedom's Journal," the first newspaper published by blacks in the United States, originated in 1827 and lasted for two years. This article examines the form and content of the journal and considers some of the previous research on it. The article states that the journal contained the first report of a lynching that was published in the United States, ran campaigns to purchase and free slaves from sympathetic owners, held meetings with its subscribers to discuss their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the content, ran editorials on colonization, printed land offers for the formations of black communities, ran notices of births, deaths, marriages, and social events in the black community, and sold advertising space. The article states that the journal had between 800 and l,000 subscribers and, using the 1850 census literacy rates, concludes that the majority of the readers were black. (MAI)