While individuals are abducted, denied due process, and trafficked across borders by the federal government, in contravention of common-sense ethics and international human rights law, we will adopt a defensive posture rooted in clear-eyed morality.

And now after 182 years we can count on it being there again. The Northern Star and Freedom's Advocate will be a non-profit and crowd-sourced public news service exercising our right to a press free of censorship or corporate influence.

Do you know why it's called the Northern Star? Polaris is in a "fixed" position over the north pole. Even under the cover of clouds, even during the day, the anxious traveler can count on it being there to show the way.

..."our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

A slaveholder wrote that. Could we, who are dedicated to slavery's universal annihilation, pledge anything less?

And that begs a question that was not theoretical then and is not theoretical now: How much are our rights worth to us? Answer: they are priceless.

If our liberties were under threat, how much should we give up to secure them? In the words of the Declaration of Independence...

But despite the moral emergency of slavery's westward expansion and high-profile kidnappings by slave-catchers of upstate New Yorkers like Solomon Northup ("12 Years a Slave"), the newspaper did not receive sufficient financial support.

Written, edited, published, and distributed largely by a dedicated network of Black authors and activists, such as Stephen and Harriet Myers, the Star connected communities from Albany to Western NY, both upstate and downstate, and into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New Jersey.