Profiles in History: William Lloyd Garrison

The masthead of the Boston newspaper 'The Liberator,' the abolitionist journal founded by WIlliam Lloyd Garrison. MPI/Getty Images

William Lloyd Garrison has gone down in the history books as being one of the first major leaders in the abolition movement of the 19th century. Although his opinions and anti-slavery views were very unpopular during that time, Garrison stood by his beliefs that all men are equal until his final days.

Garrison became most famous for publishing his own anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator. Even though Garrison’s unpopular views often got him into trouble, he printed his newspaper for over three decades filling it with opinion columns and editorials against slavery and supporting the idea that all slaves should be freed immediately.

William Lloyd Garrison, engraving from a 1879 newspaper.  Public Domain

Garrison started working in the printing industry at a young age and his knowledge of the trade helped him support the movement to end slavery in the United States. In fact, Garrison published The Liberator up until President Abraham Lincoln officially ended slavery in the nation with the 1865 passage of the 13th Amendment.

Early Years

Garrison was born in 1805 to Abijah Garrison and Frances Lloyd in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His father lost his job due to the U.S. Embargo Act of 1807 that caused the country’s commercial shipping industry to take a turn for the worse. In 1808, Garrison’s father abandoned his family after he became unemployed.

Garrison then went to work as a youth to help support his mother and siblings doing things like selling homemade lemonade and candy, and delivering firewood around his neighborhood. At age 13, Garrison got an apprenticeship with the Newburyport Herald and he began learning how to typeset and write articles.

Through the years, Garrison learned how to directly typeset his writing into the newspaper without having to first write his articles down on paper. Garrison eventually became the owner, publisher, and editor of the Newburyport Free Press, which he ran until he moved to Boston and became the editor of the National Philanthropist.

Outspoken Abolitionist

In the 1820s, Garrison became involved in the abolition movement and he ended up joining the American Colonization Society. Garrison used his Christian beliefs instilled in him by his mother to create a strong stance against slavery. He also strongly believed in peace and was against all types of war until the Civil War started, and he decided to back President Lincoln’s efforts.

While he was with the American Colonization Society, he quickly learned that many of the organization’s members actually believed that free African Americans should be moved back to Western Africa. The majority of the group’s members did not really agree that slaves should be freed; they just wanted to reduce the number of freed African Americans living in the country to preserve slavery.

In 1830, while Garrison was working as the co-editor of an anti-slavery newspaper in Maryland called The Genius of Universal Emancipation, he withdrew from the American Colonization Society after being convinced by his freed African American friends. The next year, Garrison moved back to Boston and started publishing The Liberator to further express his anti-slavery views. In 1832, he organized a group of his newspaper’s readers to form the New England American Anti-Slavery Society, which grew to become the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS). 

AAS contended that “slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God,” and Garrison used his newspaper as an outlet to spread the group’s beliefs. Garrison’s well-written editorials shamed people who participated in the slave trade business.

His efforts often got him in trouble. One slave trader filed a libel lawsuit against Garrison for an article he wrote, and the state of Maryland also pressed criminal charges against him. The pro-slavery courts found the newspaper man guilty and sentenced him to pay a $50 fine plus court costs.

However, Garrison refused to pay the fine which earned him a sentence of six months in jail. Garrison though, was released a mere seven weeks later when his friend and anti-slavery philanthropist Arthur Tappan agreed to pay the fine to free the newspaper editor.

Illustration titled "New method of assorting the mail, as practiced by Southern slave-holders." The sign on the wall offers a "reward for Tappan." Arthur Tappan paid the fine so Garrison could be released from jail. (Fotosearch/Getty Images).

After getting released, Garrison found himself in more trouble when he moved back to Boston. In 1835, an angry mob tied Garrison up and dragged him through the streets of the city and threatened to lynch him for his anti-slavery views. The city’s mayor then had him arrested and jailed for disturbing the peace to protect him from the mob.

Even though Garrison lived and operated his newspaper in the North, his views and newspaper columns heavily angered people in the South. It was reported that some people in the South offered a $1,500 award for the arrest of anyone who distributed The Liberator newspaper. The state of Georgia even offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest of the outspoken abolitionist.

The Liberator Goes World Wide

In the first issue of The Liberator which Garrison published on Jan. 1, 1831, he made it clear that his views that were seen by many as radical would be bluntly and unapologetically expressed.

“I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?” the editor stated in The Liberator’s first issue. “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

Cartoon criticizing the tendencies of certain individuals to place regional concerns above the Union as a whole. (2nd from left) abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison places his issues into the "hurly-burly pot." Printed by J Baillie. MPI/Getty Images

The newspaper contained many poems, essays, and editorials that worked to persuade people that slavery was against Christian beliefs and that African Americans also had the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He was also known as being one of the first newspaper editors that gave women abolitionists a voice by publishing their writings.

The newspaper started out small. Abolitionist William Nell wrote that during its “first year, The Liberator was supported by the colored people, and had not fifty white subscribers.” In its second year, the newspaper only had around 400 paid subscribers.

In its life of over 30 years, The Liberator has gotten to the point where they could claim about 3,000 paid subscribers. But due to its popularity in certain abolitionist groups, the paper spread to many people for free, and by 1861 it not only had subscribers in the North, but it reached Canada, Scotland, and England.

Garrison’s Later Years

After slavery had officially ended in the country, Garrison announced in May 1865 that he would be resigning as the president of the AAS and that he thought the organization’s mission was over and the society could be dissolved. In December that same year, Garrison published his last issue of The Liberator and he stated that his “vocation as an Abolitionist, thank God, has ended.”

After he left AAS and ended the publication of The Liberator, Garrison continued to support movements like civil rights for African Americans and the right to vote for women. In 1870, Garrison became an associate editor for a pro-women’s suffrage newspaper entitled the Woman’s Journal.

During the 1870s, Garrison was key to the women’s suffrage movement through his newspaper columns and his role as the president of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. In 1879, Garrison became extremely ill with kidney disease, and he eventually passed away from the ailment on May 24 that year while staying with one of his daughters in New York.