Mapping Assault in the Richmond Planet
Surprisingly, the highest concentration of assaults occurred in Philadelphia, with nine assaults, and one more nearby. This is surprising considering that the Richmond Planet is a Southern newspaper, but is perhaps less surprising because it is a large city with a large community of black people. There were about six in Virginia, four in South Carolina, three in Louisiana, and three in Alabama. There were a couple more spread out across the Northern part of the country, but the majority could be found along the eastern seaboard.
This fits with historians’ accounts on crime reporting, because many of these reports come from cities. In the case of the Planet’s reporting on assault, it had a heavy focus on New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Birmingham, all big cities. Reports of assault in more obscure places, like Manassas, VA, were fewer and farther between.
There were no international reports on assault in the Richmond Planet. As a general rule, the Planet rarely ever reports internationally, regardless of story, so this is unsurprising.