(1805-1879)

William Lloyd Garrison is most known for his work as an abolitionist. Unlike most abolitionists at the time, Garrison strove for immediate emancipation. From 1831-1865 he published an antislavery newspaper called The Liberator. Through his paper and through speeches, he worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery. He helped found the New England Antislavery Society and the American Antislavery Society, the first two antislavery organizations to call for immediate emancipation. Garrison was perplexed about their goals coming to fruition due to war. He was worried that it would change the laws but fail to move the hearts of the people. After the Civil War however he continued his fight for equality and aided the women’s battle for equal rights. Garrison held a deep belief that every human being was created equal and anything he saw that challenged that belief he fought against. In 1840 the first international convention of anti-slavery groups was held in London, England. At this convention, before Garrison arrived, they chose to deny “women of the American delegation any voice or representation on the floor of the convention.” Garrison would not have it and refused to participate. Some men joined him in a small gallery overlooking the convention floor where Charles Lenox Remond, Nathaniel P. Rogers, and William Adams stood by. Some historians say this was the first time the “women question” was debated in a public meeting in London. Some Londoners later said of Garrison and those that followed after him that “they regard women not as dolls but as human beings.” Garrison responded in September 1853 to being called a “Woman Right's Man” emphasizing that he fought not just for women but for all of humanity, he said:

I have been derisively called a ‘Woman Right's Man’.
I know no such distinction. I claim to be a HUMAN RIGHT'S Man;
and wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent
in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

Garrison, Wendell Phillips and Francis Jackson Garrison. William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of his Life Told by his Children, Vol. 3, 1841-1860. New York: Century Co., 1889.