(above is a copy of The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison's infamous publication that began in 1831 durning the turning point in the Abolition movement. Journalism like this made awareness of the possibility of the end of slavery, or in Garrison's envisionment, the immediate end to slavery.)
No topic in American history has caused more debate, struck more controversy, or for that matter taken more lives than the discussion of Abolition in America. College courses have dedicated full semesters to cover a mere tens of years in a civil war that spanned for hundreds. This topic is especially sincere to me because it deals with my own race and our fight for survival, equality, and ultimately freedom from enslaved life. In Mightier Than The Sword: How The News Media Have Shaped American History by Rodger Streitmatter the topic is covered from a journalistic point of view. It gives an in dept summary of the ways Abolition and the ending of slavery affected the people who tried to cover it, from William Lloyd Garrision's "The Liberator", his literary crusade to the immediate freedom of all slaves, to African Americans themselves finding a venture into journalism.
In the text, Streitmatter refers to William Lloyd Garrison as "the most influential abolitionist editor". This is mainly because of The Liberator, his newspaper publication in Boston that, amid ridicule by pro-slavery supporters and a near death experience by lynching, ran for over 30 years. It became one of the biggest pro-abolition voices and made William Lloyd Garrison one of the key players in the birth of the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery nationwide in 1865. Garrison also helped prove the influence of Journalism and how, without its power to reach the masses and change people's way of thinking with words, ideas, and logical and intellectual reasoning, the Abolition movement and the overall ending of slavery would have been that much harder.
From meek beginnings with the first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, where intellectually educating the black race as a whole was on the forefront compared to discussing slavery, to the North Star, a publication led by Frederick Douglass that eventually surpassed the success of The Liberator, African American journalists started to stand up and be heard. As Streitmatter states, "In a country that remained largely hostile to people of African descent...For such voices to speak loudly was impossible." However, Frederick Douglass spoke loud. His weekly the North Star was aimed at attacking slavery in all forms and aspects. With its overall academic tone and firm ideals, the North Star spoke to black and whites alike. According to the text, for every one African American subscriber there were five white American subscribers. Because of the acts of African American journalists like Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, who saw the injustices of slavery, the Abolition Movement became a changing point in history that showed African Americans themselves taking matters into their own hands. They didn't conform and leave things to the whites in power to decide on an end to slavery and discrimination, if they even considered ending it at all.
