The Liberator Abolitionist Newspaper

Founded in the year 1831, The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper. It was founded by William Lloyd Garrison. He published the weekly editions of the newspaper from Boston. It was published in continuance from 1st January, 1831 to its final issue of 1st January, 1866. The news paper was first of its kind and uncompromisingly advocated the complete emancipation of all slaves in the U.S.

The Liberator was one of the most important contributions by Garrison to the abolitionist movement. It became Garrison's vehicle in informing the country about the evils of slavery and the imperative need of its abolition. Through this newspaper, Garrison was able to put his thoughts on paper and made himself heard throughout the nation. He decided to publish his newspaper from Boston as he was of opinion that New England required most help in changing the public opinion.

In the beginning the circulation of The Liberator was very limited to only 500 subscriptions. Here Garrison took some creative decisions to spread his message throughout the nation. He followed some unique steps and set up many exchanges with other papers. In that era many newspapers had exchange programs with other newspapers, where they would send their newspaper copy to the other newspaper for exchange of their copy.

This process helped The Liberator to grow for some time and its readership increased across the nation. The success of the newspaper was primarily responsible and instrumental in placing slavery at the top of the National conscious. Garrison used to turn to his newspaper when he could not convince people by speaking to them. After his marriage to Helen Benson in 1834, Garrison started to give public speeches and attempted to enhance his support for The Liberator.

The Liberator became a source of income although moderate for his family.The following years proved very difficult for him and the newspaper. It had to face hard resistance from several State Legislatures. The newspaper also saw a reduction in its readership during this time.

The Liberator was able to continue in print for three decades from its beginning throughout the end of the American Civil War. The Government was forced to abolish slavery throughout U.S. with the introduction of the Thirteenth Amendment. Garrison published the last and the final issue of the newspaper on 29th December, 1865, with a valedictory column. Wikipedia