KNOXVILLE WHIG

The '''Knoxville Whig''' was a Knoxville, Tennessee paper begun by William G. Brownlow.
It was a polemical paper defined by its fierce religiosity and conservative political leanings, as well as its anti-immigration, especially anti-Catholic, sentiments. Throughout the 1850s, the paper sought a middle ground between the abolitionists of the North and dis-unionists of the lower South. Despite this preference for Unionism, the paper was nonetheless blatantly racist and pro-slavery. Among the ''Whig''’s favorite polemical targets were African Americans, abolitionists, Mormons, non-Methodists, and above all, Democrats.
The ''Whig'' originated in Elizabethton, Tennessee during 1839. It moved operations to neighboring Jonesboro (now Jonesborough) soon after, where it remained until 1849 when Brownlow again moved his press, this time to Knoxville, the political and economic epicenter of East Tennessee. The paper remained at that location for its subsequent duration. Brownlow famously used his paper to denounce supporters of secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. During the Civil War, Brownlow was briefly imprisoned, and thus had to temporarily suspend the publication of the ''Whig''. It would re-emerge in 1863 under the banner of ''Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator'', and served as a Radical Republican political mouth-piece. After his release from prison, Brownlow began an extensive speaking tour of the North and became the governor of Tennessee in 1865. Meanwhile, Brownlow’s son, James Brownlow, served as editor for his father’s paper.
The readership of the ''Whig'' was large and its influence significant. By the outbreak of the Civil War, it was one of the most popular sheets in Southern Appalachia. Brownlow’s steadfast Unionism, his time in a Confederate prison, and his celebrated Northern speaking tour gave the ''Whig'' national attention during the Civil War years.
The paper was later named the ''Knoxville Journal''.