Ann Arbor today is a town based in social and classroom education, providing a forum and setting for education and change. Envisioning the future, one can see the seeds of reform and revolution planted in Ann Arbor culminating in a stronger, more equal nation. Just as tomorrow is based in the roots of today's revolution, present culture stems from the work and reform of yesterday.

The Signal of Liberty, a liberal revolutionary newspaper, was published in Ann Arbor in the early and mid-1800s. Creating a web of resistance and reform, the Executive Committee for the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society printed an informative, passion-igniting weekly publication. Operating under the stated philosophy, "The inviobility of Individual Rights is the only security of public Liberty," The Signal of Liberty created a site for information, connection, and revolution. Every Wednesday, the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society aroused passion through print, and made the connection between literature and liberty.

The publishers, authors, reporters, and editors of the Michigan based paper offered a personal and local opportunity for Ann Arbor residents to involve themselves intellectually and emotionally in the fight for equal rights. In an era of prejudice and pressure, the newspaper was a front-runner for abolition and equality. In order to create a link between local and national politics and policy, the paper drew speeches, poetry, and thoughts from well-known national figures. In this way, The Signal of Liberty created a two-tiered cultural network, a local publication based in a national ideal. The contributors understood the importance of both local and national action, and therefore created and utilized a unique "national cultural network" of forward-thinking reform.

"...as a friend of my country and all for which it has stood in the past, and the broader good for which I trust it is destined to stand in the future, I cannot shirk the responsibility of the hour." -- William Henry Burleigh