Date Published:

Abstract:

Founded in 1831, Abner Kneeland’s freethought newspaper The Boston Investigator was a thorn in the side of Boston’s elite for decades, providing what amounted to a “weekly national correspondence school” to middle-class readers all over the US (French 215). However, while Kneeland’s paper gained attention with controversial articles on subjects such as atheism, labor, and birth control, what is often overlooked is its frequent printing of freethought poetry. In the context of prolific evangelical publications featuring poems aimed at converting and ridiculing infidels, The Boston Investigator published poetry that challenged religious orthodoxy and opened up a space for creative ideological and aesthetic experimentation. This paper examines the freethought poetry in Kneeland’s newspaper and explores its role in questioning religious authority and nourishing heterodox counter-publics in Jacksonian America.

September 2024: Michael Keller is an Assistant Professor of English at Columbus State Community College, where he teaches courses in literature and composition.  He has also taught at Quincy University and the University of Bergen, Norway, where he was a Fulbright Professor.  His previous scholarship has engaged the works of freethought poets, as well as the works of Charles Brockden Brown, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Jones Very.  Most recently, he has been researching the phenomenon of religious cruelty in early American literature.