EOTO #1: William Lloyd Garrison's - The Liberator

William Lloyd Garrison & The Liberator

William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer, was born Dec. 10, 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Garrison grew up in the declining atmosphere of New England federalism and lively Christian benevolence-both the fuel of the abolition movement. 

He was said to be decades ahead of most northern white abolitionists in demanding the immediate emancipation of all people held in bondage. Once Garrison joined the movement at age 25, he was determined to restore the natural rights of enslaved persons. He helped lead the successful abolitionist campaign against slavery would later be known as the most aggressive and outspoken abolitionist. 

At the young age of 13, he apprenticed to a printer and newspaper publisher. Garrison really started his career in 1828 as an editor of the National Philanthropist in Boston. He then moved to the Journal of the Times in Vermont from 1828-1829. In 1829, Garrison meets antislavery advocate, Benjamin Lundy, and he moves to Baltimore to help publish Lundy's paper the Genius of Universal Emancipation. 

He began giving speeches and strongly denounced the national sin of slavery. Garrison also served a short term in jail for libeling a merchant who was involved in the coastal slave trade. When he was released from jail, Garrison returned to Boston and began publishing The Liberator. 

Jan. 1, 1831 marks the release of the first issue. The Liberator was a weekly newspaper that Garrison wrote and published for 35 years; he never missed a week. It was the most influential antislavery periodical in the pre-Civil War period. 

In the articles, he denounced all people and acts that would prolong slavery, including the U.S. Constitution. The paper's purpose was to attack slavery and its supporters, inspire action and promote equal rights for all. While calling for an immediate end to slavery, the Church was also attacked for being a tool to oppression. 

Garrison received many threats and attempts against his life because of his harsh criticisms of all people and institutions he saw as responsible for slavery. The Liberator was published in Boston but reached a much wider audience.

The strongest supporters of The Liberator were from the local Black community. Including leaders such as Reverend Thomas Paul and businessman James Barbadoes. They publicly endorsed the paper and roughly 75% of the subscribers helped financially support it. The Liberator gave a lot of insight into the Black community. People would report on meetings and gatherings at places such as the African Meeting House. 

The paper also served as an important part of the Boston's Underground Railroad network. There were reports of fugitive slave cases and assistance organizations. The office of The Liberator was used for donations, clothing, job opportunities and information. Freedom seekers looking for shelter were given refuge in the office as well.  

    

Garrison also used his paper to advocate for other social reform movements such as women's rights, pacifism, and capital punishment. He often included writings from people that disagreed with him which gave him a starting place for his sharp responses. 

"I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation...I am in earnest-I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-AND I WILL BE HEARD," Garrison said in his first issue of The Liberator. Garrison was determined for the nation to hear his words and he was relentless in his fight to end slavery.

Garrison received recognition as the most radical of American antislavery advocates. He founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society that called for the immediate end of slavery. He then went on to help found the American Anti-Slavery Society. 

The societies held meetings, adopted resolutions, signed slavery petitions to be sent to Congress, published journals, etc. With this, Garrison's opposition to slavery and the federal government begins to reach its peak. The decade before the Civil War, Garrison also used The Liberator to denounce the Compromise of 1850, condemn the Kansas-Nebraska Act, damn the Dred Scott decision, and hailed John Brown's Harpers Ferry Raid as "God's method of dealing retribution upon the head of the tyrant." In 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of the Constitution at an abolitionist rally in Framingham, MA. 

After the Civil War, Garrison was forced to choose between his pacifist beliefs and emancipation. He put fighting for enslaved persons freedom first and supported Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, he welcomed the Emancipation Proclamation and in 1865 he attempted to dissolve the American Anti-Slavery Society, did not succeed and then retired.

"My vocation as an abolitionist has ended."   

The Liberator completed its run in Dec. 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified, which abolished slavery in the United States. In the final issue, Garrison stated, the Liberator "will then be discontinued for the reason that the object for which it was started has been accomplished-slavery not only having been abolished by the war for the Union, but also by Constitutional Amendment. What a grand and sublime triumph!"

Garrison spent the last 14 years retired from public affairs, but continued to support women's rights, pacifism and free trade.  

William Lloyd Garrison died on May 24, 1879. Garrison spent his life disturbing the peace of the nation in the cause of justice.