Garrison considered his future to be in newspapers and decided to move back to Boston that autumn because he thought many of the ministers and public figures there would be more receptive to his message. He won over several supporters in a series of antislavery speeches. Indeed, he soon received financial backing and launched a new newspaper, The Liberator , dedicated to abolitionist principles. Garrison appealed to Founding principles when he asserted that he would lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty.
He then publicly apologized for his own previous unreflecting support for the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. He stated, I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation and thus publicly ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity.
He had altered his views considerably and now identified with those who urged the immediate freeing of enslaved persons. On this subject I do not wish to think or speak, or write, with moderation. Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm. Over the next few years, Garrison established himself as one of the leading abolitionists in the country. His remained perhaps the leading abolitionist voice in the coming decades, in which slavery became a significant national issue that divided the country and led to the Civil War.
He denounced the Union and the U. Constitution as a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell and believed he obeyed a higher law than the Constitution. In this way, his ideas differed from those of statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln, who wanted to preserve the Union and Constitution while eradicating the practice of slavery.
Dear sir, how wide the difference! In one particular only, I said, our conditions are similar. He is confined to the narrow limits of a plantation I to the narrow limits of a prison-yard.
Farther all parallels fail. My food is far better and more abundant, as I get a pound of bread and a pound of meat, with a plentiful supply of pure water, per diem. I can lie down or rise up, sit or walk, sing or declaim, read or write, as fancy, pleasure or profit dictates.
Moreover, I am daily cheered with the presence and conversation of friends; I am constantly supplied with fresh periodicals from every section of the country, and, consequently, am advertised of every new and interesting occurrence.
Occasionally, a letter greets me from a distant place, filled with consolatory expressions, tender remembrances, or fine compliments. If it rain, my room is a shelter; if the sun flame too intensely, I can choose a shady retreat; if I am sick, medical aid is at hand. Besides, I have been charged with a specific offence have had the privilege of a trial by jury, and the aid of eminent counsel and am here ostensibly to satisfy the demands of justice. A few months, at the longest, will release me from my captivity.
A printer, newspaper publisher, radical abolitionist, suffragist, civil rights activist William Lloyd Garrison spent his life disturbing the peace of the nation in the cause of justice. Born on December 10, , Garrison grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts. By age 11, Garrison had to support and educate himself. At the age of 13, he apprenticed to a printer and newspaper publisher. In , Garrison met antislavery advocate Benjamin Lundy.
On July 4 of that same year, Garrison gave his first antislavery speech. They declared that America, not Africa, provided the only homeland they had ever known. Contact with Black Americans in Boston and Baltimore led Garrison to reject gradualism and colonization.
Garrison also played a role in the woman suffrage movement. Starting in the s he argued that women should be allowed to hold leadership positions in abolitionist organizations. He also fought to ensure women could join the Anti-Slavery Society. However, women were never allowed to; they were allowed to join the Liberty Party. Garrison died on May 24, of kidney disease. National Women's History Museum S. Whiting Street, Suite , Alexandria, Virginia National Women's History Museum.
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