In these days we often
make the mistake of thinking that all of the people of New England
disapproved of slavery at the end of the first half of the nineteenth
century. The truth is that many of the most influential people in that
section agreed with the South on the question of slavery. Not a few of the
most cultivated people at the North thought that an antislavery movement
would lead to an attack on other forms of property and that anarchy would
be the inevitable result.
Opposition to slavery developed naturally as a result of the new spirit in
religion and human philosophy. This distinctly affirmed the right of the
individual to develop free from any trammels. _The Dial_ and Brook Farm
were both steps toward fuller individuality and more varied life and both
were really protests against all kinds of slavery. This new feeling in the
air speedily passed beyond the color line, and extended to the animals.
One of the earliest to advocate the abolition of slavery was WILLIAM LLOYD
GARRISON (1805-1879), a printer at Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1831 he
founded _The Liberator_, which became the official organ of the New England
abolitionists.
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