26 pages • 52 minutes read
William Lloyd GarrisonTo the Public
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1831A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Index of Terms
Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was a significant engagement between the Americans and the British during the Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1775, about 1,200 American colonists faced 2,400 British troops just outside Boston. Outnumbered and with very little ammunition, the colonists fought bravely, though they eventually had to retreat, surrendering the contested hill to the British.
Despite the loss, the Battle of Bunker Hill was seen as a moral victory for the Americans. The colonists killed or wounded 1,000 of the British troops. The battle boosted the morale of those fighting for liberty against the British and showed that a group of oppressed underdogs could fight bravely and successfully against a much stronger opponent. Garrison writes of his new Boston newspaper, “I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty” (Paragraph 2, italics in original). He again associates emancipation with the principles of the American Revolution.
Enfranchisement
Enfranchisement is a political term that sometimes means “the release from slavery,” making it synonymous with the term “manumission.” However, “enfranchisement” also means being granted the full rights of citizenship, including the right to vote and hold office. Garrison’s choice of this term, instead of “freedom,” “manumission,” or “emancipation” makes his position on abolition quite radical, suggesting formerly enslaved people should be fully integrated into the American political system.
Gradual Abolition
“Gradual abolition” was the doctrine that slaves should be freed slowly and in stages, not all at once. Several states, most notably Pennsylvania, passed gradual abolition laws that provided for the enslaved population to be freed once they reached a certain age, usually in their late 20s. Even then, that freedom was not absolute. Freed persons would then be placed into a contract of indentured servitude with their former enslavers for years. Abolitionists like Garrison came to believe that such a system did not end slavery but extended it under a different name. This was morally unacceptable.
Moreover, the British Parliament was debating laws that would end slavery in the British Empire through gradual abolition. Similar restrictions on age and apprenticeships would attach to the formerly enslaved. The enslavers would also be compensated by the government for the loss of their “property.” In 1833, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, but gradual abolition proved to be so unpopular and so resisted by the formerly enslaved that the government was forced to enact full emancipation within 5 years, far ahead of schedule.
Park Street Church
Park Street Church was founded in Boston in 1804. Its ministers became famous for their application of Biblical principles to matters of social justice and human rights. Between 1826 and 1830, Edward Beecher, a notable abolitionist and the brother of abolitionist activist and novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, served as its head pastor. Under his pastorship, Garrison made his first major public statement in favor of abolition. The church is also known for its roles in prison reform, the temperance movement, and women’s rights.
Park Street Church was the tallest building in the United States for 36 years, and the tallest in Boston for 57 years, a very recognizable landmark both culturally and physically. The church still stands at the northeast corner of Boston Common.
Washington, DC
The District of Columbia, also known as Washington and Washington, DC, is the seat of the United States federal government. Home of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, all nationwide decisions about slavery were made there. Located at a midpoint between the Southern and Northern states, the District is not part of any state, with the US Congress having exclusive jurisdiction over the government of the city.
From its founding until 1790, slavery was legal in the District of Columbia, a fact that abolitionists saw as a contradiction for a national government nominally dedicated to the preservation of freedom.
