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William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879
Founder (1831) and editor of the antislavery newspaper The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison was an ardent abolitionist who believed that appeals to the nation's conscience could succeed in convincing Americans of the evils of slavery and thus bring about its destruction. Rejecting calls for gradual emancipation, Garrison demanded immediate abolition and was unrelenting in his determination to expose the brutality inherent in the South's "peculiar institution." Despite his vehement denunciations of slavery's enablers and defenders, Garrison remained steadfast in his commitment to nonviolent action and moral suasion as the only legitimate means to achieve the goal of universal emancipation.
Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes, c 1851 |