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This Date in Black History: ‘The Liberator’ Abolitionist Newspaper Begins Publication

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On February 2, 1831, prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer  William Lloyd Garrison began publishing, ‘The Liberator,’ abolitionist newspaper, in Boston Mass.

The paper was considered the most influential newspaper supporting the antislavery cause, and continued circulation for 35 years until 1942.

Among noted opinions published in the paper, strong opposition to  The Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, and the verdict in the Dred Scott case in 1857.    Georgia even offered money for Garrison’s capture.

During the over 3 decades in print, there were 1,820 issues, one every week.

According to Wikipedia, here is an example of Garrison’s strong writing:

     “I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice…I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I WILL BE HEARD!”

“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.”
“That which is not just is not law.”

(Cover Photo: U.S. National Park Service Ranger Taneka Carmouche of New Orleans, during tours along Boston’s Black Hertiage Trail on Monday, Aug. 28, 2000, shows the Black Hertiage puppet show characters at the historic African Meeting House, featuring abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, left, and underground railroad leader Harriet Tubman. (AP Photo/Deirdra Funcheon)

 


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