William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newport Massachusetts. He was a publisher, journalist, and an activist. He began writing at a young age and got a seven year apprenticeship at the age of 13 with the editor of the Newburyport Herald. It was here where Garrison found his love for writing and purchased The Newbury Essex Courant. He used the paper as a platform for expressing the sentiments of the Federalist party. After his newspaper business failed Garrison got a job at the Genius of Emancipation as an editor, which turned him into an abolitionist. When he was about 25 years old he was apart of the group called the American Colonization Society which he believed to be an anti-slave group but later found they were just trying to relocate the slaves to the west coast of Africa instead of letting them be free in America. This pushed Garrison to start his own abolitionist paper called the Liberator, this paper was responsible for building his reputation as an abolitionist. In 1833 he founded a group called the American Antislavery Society, but his unwillingness to take political action instead of just writing about it caused the members of his society to flee. In 1861 when the American Civil War broke out, Garrison continually criticized the Constitution through the Liberator. Many were surprised when the pacifist journalist began supporting Lincoln and his war policies through his paper. As the Civil War came to an end in 1865, Garrison began to see his dreams of anti-slavery come to life. The 13th amendment came into play and slavery was now outlawed. Garrison was lucky enough to see his dreams come true before he passed in 1879.

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