This site exhibits selected literary works and political writings from the first year of the abolitionist newspaper, The Boston Commonwealth (1862-1896). Though the paper lasted for over thirty years, the focus of this site is on the paper's first year, September 1862-September 1863. Begun mid-Civil War, its first issue published days after the Emancipation Proclamation's official announcement, the paper tracks a close-knit group of New England abolitionist writers as they attempted to mobilize Union patriotism in support of full and immediate emancipation.

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Review of Louisa May Alcott's new edition of Hospital Sketches 

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The Commonwealth's review of the new edition of Hospital Sketches, originally serialized in the paper