Question

Although both were dedicated to social justice in general and the
abolition of slavery specifically, William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick
Douglass were very different in their backgrounds and solutions to
the problem of slavery. Explain.

Answer 1

ANSWER

William Lloyd Garrison, a journalist from Massachusetts, was one of the most radical and influential abolitionists. In 1831, he founded the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, which advocated for the immediate emancipation of all enslaved men and women. In the first issue of The Liberator, Garrison published an open letter, “To the Public,” which called for the “immediate enfranchisement of our slave population." Garrison was also one of the most radical members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, AAS, a national organization established in 1833. The AAS was highly effective at igniting moral outrage over the institution of slavery, but ultimately, the organization was impeded by disagreements between members over the position of women and tactical uses of violence within the antislavery movement.

In 1845, Frederick Douglass—who had escaped slavery himself—published his memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, one of the most influential memoirs of an enslaved person in US history. Douglass was a tireless advocate for the abolition of slavery and was also a strong supporter of the early women's rights movement