9781422278932

Chapter One THE CALL FOR ABOLITION

O n Saturday January 1, 1831, the first issue of The Liberator was published in Boston, Massachusetts. This was a pro-abolitionist newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp. In the first issue, Garrison wrote: “Urge we not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from

Words to Understand Abolitionist: A person with the principle of fostering abolition, especially slavery. Fugitive: Running away to avoid being captured. Quaker: A member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian sect founded by George Fox ca.1650.

its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.”

Garrison was preaching to the

converted. His tiny readership consisted of either African-Americans in the North or fellow white abolitionists . But he persisted, hoping to bring his views to a wider audience. As the word spread, Southerners began to fear slave revolts and more people became convinced that slavery needed to be abolished. Garrison was OPPOSITE: In 1864 George N. Barnard was made the official photographer for the United States Army, Chief Engineer’s Office, Division of the Mississippi. He followed Union General William T. Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea and in 1866 published an album of 61 photographs, “Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign.” This is a photograph taken in Whitehall Street, Atlanta, Georgia, shortly after Sherman had taken the city in 1864. LEFT: Slaves working at an early cotton gin.

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