System 13

In Beyond the River, there were a lot of instances where a person* would send a letter to a newspaper, usually with the intent / hopes that the newspaper would publish it. The newspaper would in turn publish the letter for all to see. Oftentimes, the letter would actually be directed at one person in particularly, but to let everyone in the town “be in the know”, the correspondence would be published in a newspaper. At least one time in the book, Rankin sent a letter to The Philanthropist (the abolitionist paper in Ripley, Ohio), aimed at an anti-abolitionist. The anti-abolitionist then sent his letter to the paper, where it was also published. This whole back-and-forth bit reminded me a lot of blogs, in a way. Another way that I saw a similarity between this system and blogs was that oftentimes, a small, local newspaper would publish such letters, and then larger, national newspapers would pick up the letters and run them as well. It certainly took a lot longer to happen than a blogger posting something and then digg.com or slashdot picking up on it, but still, the idea’s the same.

I don’t really know if this bantering-via-letters goes on in newspapers anymore. Where I’m at in the world, there’s really only 1 decent local newspaper, and truth be told, I don’t really read it much. I suppose the Letter to the Editor section could be seen in a similar light as the abolitionist / anti-abolitionist letters being published in The Philanthropist. However, I’ve never really seen an instance where someone responds to a Letter to the Editor with another letter sent in to the editor. Then again, considering how bloody easy it is (and free, too) to get your own blog now, I suppose most people would just skip the middle man altogether.

Quick question to provide some more food for thought: how would the anti-slavery movement progressed if they’d had the internet and blogs back then?

*In the book, it was quite often John Rankin, seeing as he was one of the main focuses of the book