Joseph Gales (4 February 1761 – 21 July 1841) was an American journalist, newspaper publisher and political figure.
Shortly after moving to Sheffield, he became a Unitarian, and took up various Radical causes, advocating religious tolerance, Parliamentary reform and the abolition of slavery, and opposing boxing and bull-baiting.
[2] The newspaper focussed on reporting local news, and on reprinting tracts by reformers such as Paine and Joseph Priestley.
Gales established a fortnightly journal, the Sheffield Patriot, which explored political issues in more depth than the Register.
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.
[2] 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.
[1] In 1795, he traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a printer, bookkeeper[1] and as a journalist covering the United States Congress.
[1] He moved to Raleigh, North Carolina while suffering from yellow fever at the encouragement of Nathaniel Macon and other political figures.