Wm. Lloyd Garrison

Wm. Lloyd Garrison. . Newburyport native, William Lloyd Garrison, nationally known for his radical views and fiery rhetoric, became one of America's foremost spokesmen for the abolition of slavery. , William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was a prominent spokesman for the American Abolition Movement, forcefully advocating for the immediate and unconditional eradication of slavery. Garrison also strongly supported women's equality and suffrage (a position which split him from many fellow Abolitionists), and denounced discrimination, alcohol, and New England churches for not taking a strong stand against slavery. , Garrison's national reputation as a radical began in 1829 when be publicly challenged the wealthy Newburyport merchant Francis Todd as a “highway robber and murderer,” and wrote that his captain Nicholas Brown should be “sentenced to solitary confinement for life” for shipping about 80 slaves chained below deck. Garrison was charged with libel and jailed for 44 days. , In 1831, Garrison founded the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator. Although he barely made a living, he published the paper for more than three decades, and founded the New England, Massachusetts, and American Anti-Slavery Societies. Harsh, brilliant, militant, and articulate, Garrison thrived on controversy over one of the most crucial moral issues in American history. He characterized the American Constitution as a “covenant with death” and an “agreement with hell” for its partial embrace of slavery, and publicly burned a copy in 1854. Far ahead of most white Americans, Garrison rode in segregated rail cars with his African American associates. He also helped to launch the career of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1841, although he later split with Douglass. , Garrison eventually embraced the Civil War, although it shattered his utopian principles of pacifisms, non-violence, and opposition to voting, as well as his previous advocacy of separation from the southern states. Today, Garrison is recognized as a prophetic American hero who was central to the transformation of public opinion that ultimately lead to the freeing of the slaves in the United States. ,

“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation.” – William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, Vol. 1/No. 1, January 1, 1831

[Captions (from left)] , . Weekly contribution box for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Image courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books , . Portrait of Garrison at age 47. Image courtesy of the Historical Society of Old Newbury