William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), outstanding among the
dedicated fighters for the abolition of slavery, was also an
activist in other movements such as women's and civil rights and
religious reform. Never tiring in battle, he was "irrepressible,
uncompromising, and inflammatory." He antagonized many, including
some of his fellow reformers. There were also many who loved and
respected him. But he was never overlooked.
His letters, a source of the first magnitude, begin in 1822,
when Garrison was seventeen, and end in 1879, the year of his
death. They offer an insight into the mind and life of an
outstanding figure in American history, a reformer-revolutionary
who sought radical changes in the institutions of his day--in the
relationship of the races, the rights of women, the nature and role
of religion and religious institutions, and the relations between
the state and its citizens; and who, perhaps more than any other
single individual, was ultimately responsible for the emancipation
of the slaves.
Garrison's letters are also, "sui generis," important as the
expression of a vigorous writer, whose letters reflect his strength
of character and warm humanity, and who appears here not only as
the journalist, the reformer, and the leader of men, but also as
the loving husband and father, the devoted son and son-in-law, the
staunch friend, and the formidable opponent.
During the five years covered in this volume Garrison's three
sons were born and he entered the arena of social reform with full
force. In 1836 he began his public criticism of the orthodox
observance of the Sabbath. The year 1837 witnessed the severe
attack from orthodox clergyman on "The Liberator." In 1838 Garrison
attended the Peace Convention in Boston. The simmering conflict
within the antislavery movement over the issues of political action
and the participation of women broke out in 1839, and at the annual
meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, the
anti-Garrisonian minority seceded and formed the American and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Meanwhile the World's Anti-Slavery
Convention was called in London in June. Garrison attended,
arriving several days after the opening. The female delegates from
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were excluded from the convention,
and Garrison protested by sitting in the balcony with them and
refusing to participate.
General
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