19th Century
William Lloyd Garrison
1805–1879 · Abolition
The constitution and the slave trade were one system.
In their words
“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard.”
Garrison began The Liberator in 1831 demanding immediate, unconditional emancipation and refusing to soften the language. He burned a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law in public, called the Constitution an agreement with slaveholders, and split the abolitionist movement over tactics rather than goals. He lived to see the Thirteenth Amendment, then wrote that his work was done and closed the paper.
Why it matters for freedom
He named the compromise at the center of a self-styled free republic, and refused to call it anything but slavery.
Who they stood against
slaveholders, the Constitution as a bargain with them, and the mobs that burned his press