By Robert N. Taylor
In the mid-1800’s, William Lloyd Garrison was perhaps the most vocal and militant white anti-slavery activist in the nation. His activities resulted in him spending time in jail, having a $5,000 bounty placed on his head and having some abolitionists shun him because he was so radical.
He went to prison for libel after publishing an article which harshly criticized a Boston merchant who was involved in the slave trade. But when released in June 1830, he was even more determined to see slavery end in the United States. After working briefly for other anti-slavery groups and publications, the son of a seaman established his own anti-slavery newspaper – The Liberator – and in one of his most famous lines wrote: “I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.” With a circulation of 3,000, The Liberator became a major force in the anti-slavery movement.
He so antagonized the slave owners of Georgia that they persuaded the state to place a $5,000 bounty for his arrest and conviction.
Garrison was not only harshly critical of slave owners but equally so of abolitionists who favored a go-slow approach. He made it clear in The Liberator that his position was one of “immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves” adding that he could not stand the “timidity, injustice and absurdity” of the gradualists.
In addition to his newspaper work, he helped formed both the American Anti-Slavery Society and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. In fact, it was Garrison who recruited escaped slave Frederick Douglas as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society and helped him become the most powerful and influential black abolitionist in the nation starting around 1841.
Garrison’s strong opinions could also enable him to alienate people. He outraged some supporters when he burned a copy of the Constitution at an anti-slavery rally in Framingham, Massachusetts. He and Douglas had a brief falling out when he encouraged Douglas to tone down his eloquence and more like a slave when speaking to the public. And he editorially supported John Brown when he attempted to organize a violent slave uprising at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859.He also got on the bad side of President Abraham Lincoln when he criticized him for saying it was more important to save the union than to end slavery.
After the passage of the13th Amendment banning slavery in the United States in 1865, Garrison ceased publication of The Liberator and spent the last 14 years of his life aiding some of the nation’s early feminists in their struggle for voting rights. He also opposed war and supported a ban on alcohol.
Garrison made it clear that he was a man of principled ideas who was opposed to mindless patriotism saying at one point, “I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of freedom.”