num_pages: 213
description: Fiery, opinionated, and controversial, William Lloyd Garrison has always been identified with abolitionism in early nineteenth-century America. In his incisive biography of the famous publisher of The Liberator, James Brewer Stewart brings the insights of recent scholarship to bear on Garrison's enigmatic personality. The result is an even-handed study that demonstrates Garrison's talents and triumphs while at the same time exposing the character flaws that often alienated the abolitionist from his contemporaries. A key to understanding Garrison's personality is his troubled childhood, which spurred his desire for public recognition. Although Garrison became a leader in the world antislavery movement, as Professor Stewart makes clear, his attachment to other reforms--most notably women's rights--drove a wedge between him and other abolitionists and eroded his influence. Yet Garrison's career ended in triumph, for the Civil War effected the end of slavery and transformed the public's opinion of him, bringing the acclaim he had always sought.
language: English
title: William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation
titlecomplete: William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation
characters: Parker Pillsbury, Elizur Wright, Abby Kelley, Henry Brewster Stanton, Edmond Quincy, Abraham Lincoln, Gerrit Smith, James G. Birney, Wendell Phillips, Samuel Joseph May, Stephen Symonds Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Henry Clarke Wright, Maria Weston Chapman
ratings_count: 6
series: American Biographical History Series
publisher: Harlan Davidson