GARRISON, Wmnrtar LLOYD, an eminent American abolitionist, was b. at Newbury. phrt, Mass., Dec. His Jatker was _a map of lit; nary taste and ability, but fall ing into dissolute habits, deserted his wife, who, for the support of her family, had to act as professional nurse. As early as 1814, William was apprenticed to a shoemaker at Lynn, but his mother, finding that the business did not suit him, sent him back to Newburyport, where lie went to school for some time, working out of school hours in order to pay his board. In 1818, he commenced to learn cabinet-making, but this prov ing, also distasteful to him, he was, in Oct. of the same yea', apprenticed to the printer of the Herald. This occupation suited his taste; he soon made him self master of the mechanical part of the business, and when only 16 or 17 began to write for the Herald. His contributions, which were anonymous, were favorably received, and lie soon commenced to send articles to the Salem Gazette and other papers, draw ing the attention of political circles by a series of articles under the signature Aristides, with the view of removing the almost universal apathy on the subject of slavery. In 18.24, he became editor of the Herald,. and iu 1826, proprietor and editor of the Free Press, in which he was accustomed to set up his own editorial articles in type, without writing them out. This enterprise was unsuccessful, and he went to Boston, where he worked for a time as a journeyman. In 1827, he became the editor of the iVational Philanthropist in that city; in 1828, he joined a friend in the publication of the Journal of the Times at Bennington, and hi 1829 he joined Mr. Lundy at Baltimore, in editing the Genius .of Universal Emancipation. The vigorous expression of his anti-slavery
views iu this last paper.led to his imprisonment for libel, from which he was released by Mr. Tappan, a New York merchant, who paid his fine. He now prepared a series of emancipation lectures, subsequently delivered in New York and other places. He returned to BostOn, and in 1831 started the Liberator, a paper with which his name is inseparably associated, and which he carried on for 35 years, until slavery was abolished in the United States. For the first few years almost every mail brought letters to G., threatening his assassination if he did not discontinue his journal; the legislature of Georgia offered a reward of $5,000 to any one who should prosecute and bring him to conviction in accordance with the laws of that state;. in 1835, be was severely handled by a Boston mob, and, the mayor of that city was constantly appealed tc from the South to suppress his paper. In spite of all, he successfully persevered. he vis ited Great Britain, and on his return organized the American anti-slavery society, of which he was afterwards president. He visited England again, in the furtherance of his anti-slavery opinions, in 1846 and 1848. In 1865, after the total abolition of slavery in the United States, bis friends presented him with $30,000 (.-E6,000) as a memorial of his services. In 1867,- he was once more in England, and entertained at a public break fast in St. James's hall, where the duke of Argyll and Mr. Bright complimented him on his public services. Some Sonnets and other Poems by him were published in 1847, and Selections from his Writings and Speeches in 1852.