The Liberator

W. L. Garrison & I. Knapp

A weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison in Boston, Massachusetts. On January 1, 1831 the first issue of The Liberator appeared with the motto: “Our country is the world – our countrymen are mankind.” Garrison was a journalistic crusader who advocated the immediate emancipation of all slaves and gained a national reputation for being one of the most radical of American abolitionists. The Liberator denounced the Compromise of 1850, condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, damned the Dred Scott decision and hailed John Brown’s raid as “God’s method of dealing retribution upon the head of the tyrant.” The slaveholders in the South demanded the end of the incendiary paper and the state of Georgia offered a $5,000 reward for Garrison’s capture. The Liberator was a mighty force from the beginning and became the most influential newspaper in the antebellum antislavery crusade. After the end of the Civil War in December, 1865, Garrison published his last issue, announcing “my vocation as an abolitionist is ended.” After thirty-five years and 1,820 issues, Garrison had not failed to publish a single issue. Collection: African American Newspapers