The society of Friends, the first to raise a warning voice against the sin of human bondage, had nobly done its duty; and as early as 1789 had petitioned Congress in favor of the abolition of slavery.
Previous to this, however, William Beorling, a Quaker, of Long Island, Ralph Sandiford of Philadelphia, Benjamin Lay, and several others of the society of Friends, had written brave words in behalf of negro freedom.
Benjamin Lundy, also a member of the Society of Friends, commenced, in 1821, at Baltimore, the publication of a monthly paper, called “The Genius of Universal Emancipation.” This journal advocated gradual, not immediate emancipation. It had, however, one good effect, and that was, to attract the attention of William Lloyd Garrison to the condition of the enslaved negro.
Out of this interest grew “The Liberator,” which was commenced January 1, 1831, at Boston. Two years later, the American Anti-slavery Society was organized at Philadelphia.
After setting forth the causes which the patriots of the American Revolution had to induce them to throw off the British yoke, they nobly put forth the claim of the slave to his liberty.
The document was signed by sixty-four persons, among whom was William Lloyd Garrison, and John G. Whittier.
The formation of the American Anti-slavery Society created considerable excitement at the time, and exposed its authors to the condemnation of the servile pulpit and press of that period. Few, however, saw the great importance of such a work, and none of the movers in it imagined that they would live to witness the accomplishing of an object for which the society was brought into being.
One of the most malignant opposers that the abolitionists had to meet, in their commencement, was the American Colonization Society, an organization which began in 1817, in the interest of the slaveholders, and whose purpose was to carry off to Africa the free colored people. Garrison’s “Thoughts on African Colonization,” published in 1832, had already drawn the teeth of this enemy of the Negro, and for which the society turned all its batteries against him.
The people of the Southern States were not alone in the agitation, for the question had found its way into all of the ramifications of society in the North.