San Antonio Zeitung.... 3. Jahrgang. Nr. 25. San Antonio, Sonnabend, den 15. Dezember 1855. Laufende Nr. 129

San Antonio: Adolf Douai, 1855. Very good.. [4]pp. Large folio. Previously folded. Contemporary ownership inscription at head of title. Light foxing and creasing. A scarce December 1855 issue of this socialist, abolitionist German Texas newspaper, the San Antonio Zeitung, "Ein sozial-demokratisches Blatt für die Deutschen in West-Texas."

"The San Antonio Zeitung... began weekly publication as San Antonio's first German-language newspaper on July 1, 1853, under the editorship of C. D. Adolph Douai, a German-born scholar, teacher, and social reformer. The newspaper, written largely in German, was aimed at the large German population in San Antonio and the surrounding region. In a prospectus Douai announced that the Zeitung would regard every political question from the viewpoint of social progress. He published the free-soil platform adopted by the Texas State Convention of Germans in 1854 and in a series of editorials attacked the institution of slavery as an evil incompatible with democratic government, a form of government that required "free tillers of their own soil.... But many merchants, fearful of being associated with the abolitionists, withdrew their advertisements from the paper, and several German communities passed resolutions publicly condemning it. Douai continued doggedly and in the February 9, 1855, issue of the Zeitung went so far as to declare that western Texas must be free. In May 1856, with ill-feeling mounting and revenues on the decline, he was forced to sell the paper. It was purchased by a member of the opposition, Gustav Schleicher, who took over the publication and renamed it the San Antonio Staats-Zeitung" - Handbook of Texas Online.

The present issue, published on December 15, 1855, contains an article on the situation of Chinese immigration to California, an account of Know-Nothing Party violence in Maine, news on sectional and slavery issues from across the country (entitled "The Separation of the Union"), including reports on the ongoing saga in Kansas, as well as several columns on news from Germany and copious advertising for German businesses in San Antonio and the surrounding area. OCLC locates only microfilm and digital holdings of the periodical, though the source of the physical holdings appears to be UTSA. We locate no runs or single issues of the paper in archived sales records other than the present issue. A good example of this rare and important anti-slavery Texas newspaper.