THE LIBERATOR Newspaper. Founded by white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) and Isaac Knapp (1804-1843).
With a feared and respected masthead, the goal of this remarkable newspaper was the immediate eradication of slavery in the United States. Appearing weekly from 1831-1865, Garrison decried in his first issue: “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject … I will not retreat a single inch‑‑AND I WILL BE HEARD!” Although each issue numbered but 3000 copies, it was the voice of abolition to the world, affirming its wide distribution.
The South’s heavy suppression of The Liberator included: indicting Garrison for felonious acts, rewarding $1500 to anyone who identified the paper’s distributors, and in Washington, DC, a law prohibited free blacks from collecting the paper at the post office on pain of a $20 fine or 30 days in jail. However, for the same offense in nearby Maryland, blacks could receive sentences of up to 20 years.
Newspapers are said to produce the “first draft of history,” and the several dozen abolitionist papers usually held themselves to a higher standard of reportage than the several thousand politically mainstream, sensational and partisan papers of the day. White-owned abolitionist papers fared better than their African American predecessors and later counterparts, no doubt due to higher literacy rates, an expanding economy, and their subscribers’ liberty to posses, travel, and share them with others.
The Mark E. Mitchell Collection contains an astounding 1,564 different issues – 86% of the entire LIBERATOR output.