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• William Lloyd Garrison was one of the most influential abolitionist leaders in America during the years that led up to the American Civil War. Through his newspaper, The Liberator, he passionately argued for an immediate and absolute freedom for all people held in slavery.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: December 12, 1805
  2. Place of birth: Newburyport, Massachusetts
  3. Uncompromising stand on slavery earned him many enemies
  4. In 1831 the Confederate state of [http: //www.mahalo.com/Georgia Georgia] offered $5,000 for Garrison's arrest and conviction
  5. On July 4th, 1854 he publicly set fire to a copy of the [http: //www.mahalo.com/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America U.S. Constitution]; he called it a "covenant with death" and "an agreement with Hell" because in its original form it sanctioned slavery.

• Timeline

  • 1828: Denounced the American Colonization Society
  • 1830: Joined Abolition movement
  • 1831: Founded anti-slavery newspaper "The Liberator"
  • 1832: Founded the New-England Anti-Slavery Society
  • 1833: Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society
  • 1834: Married Helen Eliza Benson
  • 1854: Burned the constitution at an abolitionist meeting

• Quotes

  1. "The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead."
  2. "With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."
  3. "The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell."
  4. "I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard! "

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Frederick Douglass | Abraham Lincoln | John Greenleaf Whittier | Uncle Tom's Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe

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