“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.”
– First issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s “The Liberator,” in a column entitled “To the Public” (published January 1, 1831)
William Lloyd Garrison campaigned tirelessly against the institution of slavery. For 35 years, he published an influential antislavery newspaper that was aptly titled “The Liberator.” It had a modest circulation of only 3,000, but there were many influential people in its readership. These included the former slave Frederick Douglass, who would go on to become a tireless antislavery campaigner in his own right.
I had seen William Lloyd Garrison’s life depicted in a PBS film called “The Abolitionists.” Thus, I knew something about his political relationship with Frederick Douglass. Garrison asked Frederick Douglass to campaign against the institution of slavery, drawing upon his experiences as a former slave to do it. Frederick Douglass reluctantly agreed, and even wrote a memoir about his enslavement that Garrison helped to promote. But Garrison and Douglass were estranged for some time, because they broke with each other over some important issues within the abolitionist movement. Their relationship was later repaired, and they became friends again. Thus, one might say that their relationship was somewhat complicated.
Frederick Douglass
This is one of the few areas of Garrison’s life that this audiobook does not attempt to cover. They do not mention Frederick Douglass at all, let alone Garrison’s complicated relationship with him. But this may be because they are focused on “The Liberator” as a work of political philosophy. Indeed, this audiobook is an installment in a series called “The Giants of Political Thought.” Thus, they talk about how Garrison influenced the abolitionist movement, and pushed for what was then called “immediatism” (or the “immediate” abolition of slavery).
William Lloyd Garrison
Garrison was good at demolishing a number of his abolitionist opponents. Specifically, he didn’t like those who called for “gradualism,” or the “gradual” abolition of slavery. He noted how slaves would suffer from having their freedom postponed to an indefinite (or even definite) future date. This was one of his contributions to the abolitionist movement. He demolished most of his “gradualist” opponents, and pushed the abolitionist movement further towards “immediatism” (as it was then called). There were some valid points to make in this regard, but there were also sobering political realities that Garrison had a capacity to ignore. Most importantly, there wasn’t enough support for an immediate end to slavery to make it possible at this early date, something that Garrison seems not to have taken into account.
Abraham Lincoln
In contrast to Garrison, Abraham Lincoln was a committed “gradualist.” Thus, Garrison was initially hostile to Lincoln, as were most other abolitionists. But when the Civil War began, Garrison changed his mind and supported Abraham Lincoln. This angered a number of Garrison’s more zealous friends, but Garrison turned out to be right. Supporting Lincoln did indeed mean hastening the end of slavery. That end did not come immediately, but the process of emancipation began when Lincoln issued his famous “Emancipation Proclamation” in 1863. Later, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed during the Lincoln presidency, but was not ratified until 6 December 1865, more than seven months after Lincoln’s assassination. Thus, Garrison published his last issue of “The Liberator” later in the month that the amendment was ratified, on 29 December 1865. One might interpret the interim period as a sort of “victory lap,” in which his storied newspaper celebrated its victory over chattel slavery – while at the same time preparing for the next phase of the civil rights struggle.
William Lloyd Garrison
This is a good introduction to the political battles over slavery at this time. It does not ignore the practical debates, but it does focus on the more theoretical issues behind them, in a way that most other histories do not. I highly recommend this audiobook to anyone who wants an introduction to this subject. I also recommend PBS’s “The Abolitionists” for a more biographical treatment of Garrison’s life, and those of some other abolitionists of the era – such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
A PBS film covering William Lloyd Garrison (and some other abolitionists)
Incidentally, this audiobook is also coupled with another audiobook about Henry David Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience.” I plan to review this other audiobook at a later time.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Part of the audiobook series
The Giants of Political Thought
William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator
Others to be covered later
See also the audiobook series
The United States Constitution
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