Delicacy is not to be counselled. Slavery is a monster, and he must be treated as such-hunted down bravely and despatched at a blow
So spoke the editor and journalist William Lloyd Garrison when a colleague of his warned him to moderate his views, words, and actions when it came to his abolitionism and his denouncement of slavery as an absolute evil that should be immediately ended no matter what the consequences to the rich and power or even to the nation itself. Evil was evil and could never be justifiable. Compromising with it only gave it power and weakened the cause of justice. Anything that collapsed because of the ending of such evils was founded upon wickedness and either needed to be demolished or purged as by fire in order to create something good for humanity. This scaled up to the macro level, where Garrison was a secessionist who would have rather seen the North leave the Union so that it could be a bastion of liberation instead of the enabler of slavery, all the way down to the personal level, where Garrison would be willing to give his life and his liberty for the cause of justice. In his conviction and his courage, Garrison reminds me of another quote from a latter-day proponent of freedom, Karl Hess, who wrote, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
This too seems to be how Garrison lived. He not only supported the immediate ending of slavery, but also he was a vocal supporter of women’s suffrage, to the point that he was willing to split the abolitionist movement over the issue because he would not exclude women from the organization. Likewise, when the United States government began to limit the immigration of Chinese people to the nation, Garrison spoke out against the evil, racism, and lies used to justify this anti-immigration law (and all others as well.) Upon his death, no less a lion of a man than Frederick Douglass eulogized Garrison, saying that despite his faults, namely that at times he could be unduly harsh even to his friends, his unwillingness to compromise was a virtue that gave him the power to stand unmoved in the cause of liberty:
It was the glory of this man that he could stand alone with the truth, and calmly await the result.
…He had faith in the simple truth and faith in himself. He was unusually modest and retiring in his disposition; but his zeal was like fire, and his courage like steel, and during all his fifty years of service, in sunshine and storm, no doubt or fear as to the final result, ever shook his manly breast or caused him to swerve an inch from the right line of principle.
Speech on the Death of William Lloyd Garrison, pgs. 5-6
One of the storms that arose to shake Garrison’s life occurred early in his career. Years before he had begun his famous (and infamous) abolitionist newspaper (and our namesake), The Liberator, Garrison edited and wrote for another abolitionist newspaper, the cumbersomely titled Genius of Universal Emancipation. His time at this newspaper, under the tutelage of its owner Benjamin Lundy, proved important for Garrison as it was during the years that he served as its editor (1829-1830) helped him to realize that “gradual emancipation” over an uncertain number of years and deportation of the free black population from the United States was immoral, unethical, and foolish. It was during these years that he was moved intellectually, morally, and emotionally to embrace immediate abolitionism and damn everything that called for anything less than the immediate liberation of all slaves from slavery and which justified their robbery, rape, torture, and murder even one second more. It was also during this time in his life that he faced the reality that his advocacy could cost him his liberty or even his life and courageously judged the sacrifice worthy of the reward.
During his tenure editing and publishing the Universal Genius, Garrison introduced a new feature of the paper which he, perhaps in a moment of dark humor, titled The Black List. Each week in this section, Garrison published “some of the terrible incidents of slavery-instances of cruelty and torture, cases of kidnapping, advertisements of slave auctions, and descriptions of the horrors of the foreign and domestic slave trade.” It was in this section on November 13th, 1829 that Garrison wrote about the transportation of 75 slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans on the ship Francis, owned by New England merchant Francis Todd and managed by “Yankee captain” Nicholas Brown. In a November 20th follow up article, Garrison denounced both men and the society that allows their business saying:
I do not repeat the fact because it is a rare instance of domestic piracy, or because the case was attended with extraordinary circumstances; for the horrible traffic is briskly carried on, and the transportation was effected in the ordinary manner. I merely wish to illustrate New England humanity and morality. I am resolved to cover with thick infamy all who were concerned in this nefarious business.
…It is no worse to fit out piratical cruisers, or to engage in the foreign slave trade, than to pursue a similar trade along our own coasts; and the men who have the wickedness to participate therein, for the purpose of heaping up wealth, should be sentenced to solitary confinement for life; they are the enemies of their own species—highway robbers and murderers; and their final doom will be, unless they speedily repent, to occupy the lowest depths of perdition. I know that our laws make a distinction in this matter. I know that the man who is allowed to freight his vessel with slaves at home, for a distant market, would be thought worthy of death if he should take a similar freight on the coast of Africa; but I know, too, that this distinction is absurd, and at war with the common sense of mankind, and that God and good men regard it with abhorrence.
…[After explaining how people used to wonder how Todd managed to maintain a profitable merchant business Garrison states,] The mystery seems to be unravelled. Any man can gather up riches if he does not care by what means they are obtained. …Capt. B., we believe, is a mason. Where was his charity or brotherly kindness?
William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; The Story of His Life Told by His Children: Volume 1 pgs. 165-166. Hereafter WLG
More than the mere facts of the case, it is Garrison’s incisive statements of truth that will cause Todd to sue him for libel. Garrison’s taking New England to task for not just its complacency in regards to slavery but its actual enabling of the slave trade is damning – after all, no matter how many laws you pass against slavery in your territory as long as you engage in the slave trade you are still enabling slavery and slave masters. Garrison rightfully noted that it doesn’t matter what the law says, or what society says, or what the government allows. Evil is evil even when it is legal and any person of morality will not only reject it but work to end it. A law which allows a domestic slave trade while making the international trade illegal is absurd, the former is just as bad as the latter and there is no difference between those who kidnap men from Africa and those who kidnap them from Virginia. And yes, the slave trade is always kidnapping and piracy. It doesn’t matter if the slave master says, the opinion of the man, women, or child actually being taken is the only opinion that matters and they do not wish to be slaves. And here those engaged in this frightful evil pretend to be Christians and Masons who believe love and charity are the foundation of human conduct? Balderdash. You can be a Christian/Mason or you can be involved in the slave trade. You cannot be both.
Enraged at having himself revealed for what he truly was, for having the cloak he used to cover his lies stripped away from him, Todd accused Garrison of, “contriving and unlawfully, wickedly, and maliciously intending, to hurt, injure and vilify [Todd] and to deprive him of his good name, fame and reputation, and to bring him into great contempt, scandal, infamy, and disgrace, to the evil example of all others in like manner offending, and against the peace, government and dignity of the State.’ (WLG, pg. 168) Todd’s libel trial against garrison started on February 19th, 1830. Multiple witnesses testified to the facts of Garrison’s accusation. The ship’s “pilot,” which I take to mean the person who actually drove the ship day to day, testified that there were actually eighty-eight slaves on the ship, thirteen more than what Garrison had published, and Todd’s agent in Baltimore testified that he (the agent) had notified Todd that he would be transporting slaves on behalf of Todd and that Todd willingly accepted this, thus making him a knowing and willing participant in the slave trade. Todd’s defense quoted from the article, defended Todd’s role in taking part in a legally acceptable practice, and accused Garrison of ‘fanaticism and virulence.’ (WLG, pg. 171) It took 15 minutes for the jury to find Garrison guilty and the court ended up sentencing him to a $50 plus costs amounting to about $100, which in modern present day dollars amounts to $2462.78 – far more than garrison could afford to pay just as many today could not afford to pay. So, on April 17th, 1830, William Lloyd Garrison was sentenced to six months in prison and entered Baltimore Jail.
Garrison spent forty-nine days in jail before a wealthy and generous abolitionist named Arthur Tappan would pay Garrison’s costs. During his time in prison Garrison was regularly confronted with slave masters or their agents who came to claim runaway slaves who had been captured and were being held in the jail until they were reclaimed. Garrison’s confrontation with one such slave master is recorded by his sons as he related it to them, and includes this wonderful exchange:
“Why, sir,” exclaimed the slavite [the slave master], with unmingled astonishment, “do you really think that the slaves are beings like ourselves?—that is, I mean do you believe that they possess the same faculties and capacities as the whites?”
“Certainly, sir,” I [Garrison] responded; “I do not know that there is any moral or intellectual quality in the curl of the hair or the color of the skin. I cannot conceive why a black man may not as reasonably object to my color, as I to his. Sir, it is not a black face that I detest, but a black heart—and I find it very often under a white skin.”
“Well, sir,” said my querist, “how should you like to see a black man President of the United States?”
“As to that, sir, I am a true republican, and bow to the will of the majority. If the people prefer a black President, I shall cheerfully submit; and if he be qualified for the station, may peradventure give him my vote.”
(WLG, pg. 177-178)
As Garrison’s predicament testifies to, just openly opposing the slave trade could get you imprisoned in the United States in 1830. Yet here is Garrison, revolutionary ahead of his times, denouncing not only slavery and racism, but announcing his willingness to vote for a black man as President! No wonder the “man and his crew were confounded.” Garrison was ahead of his time by a century if not a century and a half. Like many prophets and great minds he was largely hated by the masses of his country and beloved only by the few who had the vision to see and ears to hear the truth.
While in prison Garrison continued to write a great deal. One of these letters were to Francis Todd and demonstrates both Garrison’s magnanimity, but also his keen sense of justice:
How could you suffer your noble ship to be freighted with the wretched victims of slavery? Is not this horrible traffic offensive to God, and revolting to humanity? You have a wife—Do you love her? You have children—If one merchant should kidnap, another sell, and a third transport them to a foreign market, how would you bear this bereavement? What language would be strong enough to denounce the abettor? You would rend the heavens with your lamentations! There is no sacrifice so painful to parents as the loss of their offspring. So cries the voice of nature!
…Sir, I owe you no ill-will. My soul weeps over your error. I denounced your conduct in strong language—but did not you deserve it? Consult your Bible and your heart. I am in prison for denouncing slavery in a free country! You, who have assisted in oppressing your fellow-creatures, are permitted to go at large, and to enjoy the fruits of your crime! Cui prodest scelus, is fecit. [He who benefits from the crime has done it.]
(WLG, pg. 180-181)
In addition to the many letters that Garrison wrote, he also was able to write more poetry than he had in the past. While Garrison was no Byron, one of Garrison’s favorite poets, Garrison’s works still demonstrate the courage and peace he felt in his course, which in turn testify to his determination to do the same again even if it meant facing the same punishments. Fear would not prevent him from pursing truth. He knew the consequences of, “Doing what is right and letting the consequences follow,” as can be seen in this poem he wrote:
To Sleep
Written After A Night's Incarceration In Prison
Thou art no fawning sycophant, sweet Sleep!
Who turn'st away if fortune rudely frown,
Leaving the stricken wretch alone to weep,
And mourn his former opulent renown:
O, no! but here - even in this desolate place -
Thou com'st, as t'were a palace trimmed with gold;
Its architecture of Corinthian grace;
Its gorgeous pageants, dazzling to behold.
No prison walls nor bolts can thee affright;
Where dwellest innocence, thou art found:
How pleasant and serene wast thou last night!
What blissful dreams my morning slumber crowned!
Health-giving Sleep! than mine a nobler verse
Must to the world thy matchless worth rehearse.
Once release from jail thanks to the kindness of Arthur Tappan, who would remain a patron of Garrison and the soon to be founded Liberator for another decade, Garrison shortly left Baltimore and began a speaking tour which would eventually culminate in his settlement in Boston and the founding of The Liberator.
Lessons To Be Learned
Courage is not measured in how much one is willing to maim, brutalize, or kill others. Heroism is not determined by one’s waging war, destroying homes, and leveling civilizations. Heroism and courage are found in the willingness to sacrifice and suffer for the good of others. Garrison demonstrated these qualities again and again in his life. His willingness to go to prison in protest against one of the most ancient evils in human history has him teaching by example what Henry David Thoreau would later develop as a maxim: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” And so Garrison went to prison. He understood that noncompliance and noncooperation with evil, no matter its source, must ever be our guide, even if that means refusing to comply with or intentionally breaking the law. To do otherwise would be to balk before the monster, be silent when what was required was the truth, and to become quietly complicit is evil. It did not matter to Garrison that the government was involved, or what laws he may have broke, or whose power he was defying. The government’s willingness to enforce wickedness by law meant that it too must be defied by those who sought to save those who were suffering under and by its power. This is as true today as it was then, whether the subject be slaves or the multitude of oppressive, corrupt, and often brutal laws and actions of government today. Defiance, not compliance, is what is called for in the face of wickedness in places high and low. To do otherwise would make us, like Francis Todd, “highway robbers and murderers, the enemies of our own species.”
Sometimes this will require us to stand alone. Then alone we must stand. As Garrison shows, when we do so our courage will often win to our side the support of those who can enable us to do more for the good of our fellow man, just as Garrison’s stand brought him to the attention of Arthur Tappan and eventually gave him the ability to begin The Liberator, becoming the most important voice in the nation calling for the immediate liberation of all slaves, the ending of racism, and the granting of equal rights to all men and women. But, even if it does not, even if we stand alone and win no allies and are unable to magnify our example, the stand itself is still worth it. As Garrison notes in his poem To Sleep, written when he thought he would be in prison for many more months and before anyone appeared to help him, the only way that a man can rest easy is with a conscious free from the burden of sin and evil. The knowledge that you have done right is itself a great reward. No man can think himself a true Man and no woman can think of herself as a true Woman if he or she has betrayed virtue for ease.
At the same time, Garrison shows us the proper attitude that we should have towards our persecutors. He does not hate Francis Todd, even though he has taken part in the slave trade and even though his persecutions have caused Garrison to be imprisoned. Instead of anger and hatred, Garrison responds with sorrow and mercy, saddened that Todd has chosen evil over good and seeking to convince him of the error of his ways that he may repent and redeem himself. If you want a good example of what it means to be a Christian, to love your enemy, to forgive all men, and to seek to overcome evil with good, there are fewer better examples than this one. It is this forgiveness and this love which animates Garrison, both in his denunciations of and opposition to slavery as well as his appeal to Todd in an attempt to get him to recognize the evil of his actions and repent, that I find so appealing about the man, not just here but throughout the rest of his life. Whereas so much of the world is driven by anger, hatred, and vengeance, Garrison was doing his utmost to be a true Christian, as opposed to a merely credal Christian, and was motivated by faith, hope, and love. His example and his courage is one the world needs more of today as much as ever before.