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William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879)
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During the three decades preceding the Civil War,
no figure loomed more prominently in the crusade
against slavery than William Lloyd Garrison, founding
editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator
and a pivotal force in both the New England
and American Anti-Slavery societies. “I am
in earnest–I will not equivocate–I will not excuse–I
will not retreat a single inch–and I will be heard!”
proclaimed William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, in the
first issue of The Liberator. One of the
first opponents of slavery to demand complete and
immediate freedom for African Americans, Garrison
was true to his word. It was not until the passage
of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery thirty-five
years later that The Liberator finally ceased
publication.
A self-righteous, serious man, Garrison sought nothing
less than “redemption of the human race.” With
equal vigor he attacked intemperance, gambling, imprisonment
for debt, and racial injustice directed against Native
Americans and Chinese immigrants. |
Unidentified artist
Oil on canvas, 1855
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Marliese R. and Sylvester G. March
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