Gales met Tom Paine, who encouraged him to found a radical newspaper. In June 1787, he began publishing the Sheffield Register,[2] initially in partnership with David Martin.[3] The newspaper focussed on reporting local news, and on reprinting tracts by reformers such as Paine and Joseph Priestley.[2]
In 1789, Martin left the partnership.[3] Gales' politics became more prominent. He welcomed the French Revolution, acclaiming the victory of "our French brethren over despots and despotism". He marked this by roasting an ox and carrying it in a procession through the town which was fired on by local authorities.[3]
From 1792, troops were permanently billeted in Sheffield, and regular clashes took place on the streets.[4] Gales established a fortnightly journal, the Sheffield Patriot, which explored political issues in more depth than the Register. He also established contact with the London Corresponding Society, began sitting on the Sheffield society's committee,[2] and published the first cheap edition of Paine's Rights of Man.[1]
In 1794, the Government began arresting leaders of the Corresponding Societies, and Gales wrote articles decrying this.[2] Gales was suspected of writing a letter offering to sell pikes to the London society, but was on business in Derby when troops arrived to arrest him.[4][3]
Now alarmed as to his safety, Gales published his final issue of the Register, noting that "convinced that by ruining my family and distressing my friends by risking either, would only gratify the ignorant and malignant, I shall seek that livelihood in another land which I cannot peaceably gain in this."[3] He then fled to Hamburg in Germany. Winifred remained behind to sell the Register to James Montgomery before joining her husband.[1]
He moved to Raleigh, North Carolina while suffering from yellow fever at the encouragement of Nathaniel Macon and other political figures.[5] In October 1799, Gales published the first issue of his Raleigh Register. The paper, which continued after his death in the hands of his family, was influential throughout the state for the next sixty years. It became well known as a Whig-supporting paper.[6]
From 1819 to 1833, Gales served as "intendant of police," or mayor, of Raleigh. He was also an officer in the local chapter of the American Colonization Society,[7] and acted as state printer.[1]
In his later years, Gales moved to Washington, D.C. and became treasurer of the national Colonization Society. He favored a gradual end to slavery,[7] and at one point owned slaves himself.[1]
Gales returned to Raleigh in 1839. He was again elected mayor in January 1840 and held the office until his death in 1841. He is buried in Raleigh's City Cemetery. [7]
References
^ abcdefghi "Gales, Joseph", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
