William Lloyd Garrison: The Liberator Roars

Through the Liberator William Lloyd Garrison spoke out against slavery and for the rights of black Americans. The newspaper's motto was: "Our country is the world - our countrymen are mankind," an adoption of a comment made by Thomas Paine. He established the tone of his paper in the first issue with an editorial entitled, "To the Public." In this editorial he boldly stated he would "strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population." Not only would he crusade for the emancipation of slaves but he would also work to give freed slaves full voting citizenship. He wrote:

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 hand 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.

One must understand the times. Slavery was seen by many in the North, especially Abolitionists, as evil. But beyond the settlement of the slavery issue there were great divides in what to do with freed slaves. As we saw above in the American Colonization Society, some wanted to start a colony of freed slaves in Africa. Abraham Lincoln himself held this view for some time. Others believed that the slaves should be freed, but not be given the same rights as whites or be allowed to vote. What William Lloyd Garrison proposed was radical and not necessarily popular. But Garrison countered that, since many were born in America, they were entitled to the Constitution's promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Liberator was not as successful, early on, as we might think today. There were less than 400 subscriptions during the paper's second year! Garrison attacked not only slave owners but the "gradualists" as well (those not seeking immediate emancipation). Garrison's reputation for being one of the most radical of abolitionists likely hurt the paper. But Garrison stressed nonviolence and passive resistance as a means to emancipation and he soon attracted a following.

In 1832 Garrison helped organize the New England

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