1805-79, American abolitionist, b. Newburyport, Mass. He supplemented
his limited schooling with newspaper work and in 1829 went to Baltimore
to aid Benjamin Lundy
in publishing the Genius of Universal Emancipation. This led (1830)
to his imprisonment for seven weeks for libel. On Jan. 1, 1831, he published
the first number of the Liberator, a paper that he continued
for 35 years (to Dec. 29, 1865), until after the Thirteenth Amendment had
been adopted. In the
Liberator, Garrison took an uncompromising
stand for immediate and complete abolition of slavery. Though its circulation
was never over 3,000, the paper became famous for its startling and quotable
language. Garrison relied wholly upon moral persuasion, believing in the
use of neither force nor the ballot to gain his end. His language antagonized
many. In 1835 he was physically attacked in Boston by a mob composed of
seemingly respectable people, and thereby won a valuable convert to his
cause in Wendell Phillips.
Garrison opposed the work of the American
Colonization Society in his Thoughts on African Colonization
(1832). He was active in organizing (1831) the New England Anti-Slavery
Society and (1833) the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was
president (1843-65). Garrison also crusaded for other reforms that he united
with abolitionism, notably woman suffrage and prohibition. He went
so far as to advocate Northern secession from the Union because the
Constitution, which Garrison characterized as “a covenant with death and
an agreement with Hell,” permitted slavery. He burned the Constitution
publicly at an abolitionist meeting in Framingham, Mass., on July 4, 1854,
and opposed the Civil War until Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. Garrison’s preeminence in the antislavery cause has been
characterized as a “New England myth,” some arguing that while Garrison
attracted attention, the effective fight against slavery was carried
on by lesser known, more realistic men (see abolitionists).
Garrison, a difficult personality, was not himself a good organizer.
More informationn on W. L. Garrison