Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
In 1832, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was organized in
Boston, and the campaign for "immediate and unconditional
emancipation" begun. The Colonization Society, which Mr. Garrison
formerly supported but later denounced, became the object of special
attack as an ally of the slave power, and, to counteract its
designs, he sailed for England, May 2, 1833, to expose its
proslavery purposes to the English abolitionists. He was cordially
received by Wilberforce, Buxton, Zachary, Macaulay, Daniel
O'Connell, and their associates in the struggle for West India
emancipation, and before he left the kingdom he witnessed the
passage of the Emancipation Act, and was present at the funeral of
Wilberforce, in Westminster Abbey. Returning from his successful
mission abroad he narrowly escaped the hands of a New York mob on
landing upon his native soil.
In December, 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, in
Philadelphia, and Mr. Garrison drew up its famous Declaration of
Sentiments, which numbered among its signers many of the men and
women destined to be distinguished in the anti-slavery cause, among
whom was the poet Whittier.
On September 4, 1834, Mr. Garrison was married to Miss Helen Eliza
Benson, of Brooklyn, Conn.; a fortunate and happy union.
In 1835, the eminent English orator, George Thompson, came by
invitation to the United States to assist in the emancipation of the
American, as he had of the West Indian, slave. The announcement
that he would speak at a meeting of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery
Society, held in Boston, October 21st, of the same year, was the
occasion of a mob composed of wealthy and respectable citizens of
Boston who aimed to suppress free speech and tar and feather Mr.
Thompson. He was, however, prevented from attending by his friends,
but the fury of the mob fell upon Mr. Garrison, who was seized and
led through the streets with a rope around his body, from which
position he was rescued through the efforts of Mayor Lyman and
imprisoned for safety in the Leverett Street jail. This outrage
created new friends and gave fresh impetus to the abolition
movement.
In 1840 Mr. Garrison again visited England as a delegate of the
World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, in which body, however,
he declined to sit, because the women who were his fellow-delegates
from America were excluded.
Occupied continuously with the care of _The Liberator_ and in
lecturing, Mr. Garrison led an intensely active life, not confining
himself alone to the anti-slavery reform but embracing among other
reforms those of temperance, non-resistance, women's rights, and
religious freedom. For, while educated by his mother in the strict
tenets of the Baptist faith, he early experienced a change of
theological views and cast off sectarian bonds. _The Liberator_ was
used for the expression of his individual beliefs and was not the
organ of any society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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