January 2, 1836
Includes a notice of the dissolution of the Copartnership of Knapp & Garrison, “by mutual consent”.
With an introduction to the new volume, Garrison recites some the history of abolition, then proudly announces that the Colonization Society is struggling with dissolution, then goes on to recount successes: “Look, now, at that powerful association, the American AntiSlavery Society! Look at seven flourishing state Societies! Look a five hundred auxiliary societies, and see them multiplying daily! Look at the flood of our publications sweeping through the land, and carrying joy, and hope, and life, and fertility wherever they go! See how many presses have espoused our cause! ——- And the stream of sympathy still roles on – its impetus is increasing – and it must ere long sweep away the pollutions of slavery!……” Goes on to ascribe all glory and honor for the coming victory, to God.
Jan 16, 1836
Under the “Slavery Record” There is a record of a meeting of the proslavery citizens of Athens and Limestone County, to consider how to respond to “an organized band of abolition fanatics of the northern states” naming some of them with a capitalization of “Birney”, “whose sole and avowed object is to sow the seed of discord, rapine, and murder among the slaves of the south ……. Shall we fold our arms and be still until the storm sweeps over us and the earth shakes beneath us? No. We declare to the world that we will defend our liberties and our property which the constitution of our country has guaranteed to us; but having rights and knowing them, we shall dare maintain them….”
In resolutions the meeting then goes on to appoint a “committee of vigilance” whose duty it shall be to apprehend any suspicious persons and bring them before the committee for examination.
The issues then includes a long response from Birney, beginning of page 1 and continued on page 4.
Jan 16, 1836
Here is a call for an Antislavery Convention in Rhode Island, with a long list of more than two columns of names who are signers, showing wide activity by towns in the state.
February 13, 1836
The story of an Anti-Abolition meeting, Jan 22, with the Mayor acting as President. The meeting refers to the foundation of the nation and the discussion of the fact that the South “was found in possession of a kind of property which did not exist to any extent in the Middle and Eastern states; after a full and thorough discussion the compact of the union was consummated, leaving to the slave states, the discretion of settling the momentous question in their own way, and in their own good time; the implied guarantee was thus promulgated, that slave property should be held sacred by the Constitution, and protected by the Laws.”
At this meeting Birney was heard in defense of the Abolitionists, but shouts and accusations hurled at him made it impossible for him to complete his defense. The anti-abolition resolutions were passed. Discussion includes references that the whole history of the negroes shows that they are incapable of freedom, and that “They would be better off in slavery.”
March 5, 1836
In a letter from Brooklyn, Ct, Feb 10, 1836, written to Mr. Oliver Johnson, Garrison indicates that he cannot attend the meeting of the Vermont Anti Slavery Society, and goes on to commend the people of Vermont for their early abolition of slavery in the state, and then says:
“Henceforth when the American oppressor attempts to convince us that the slaves are his property, by pointing us to the color of their skin and texture of their hair, by showing us how large a sum he had paid for their bodies and their souls, by proving that they were bequeathed to him by some defunct predecessor, we will kindle at the insult, and tell him that nothing will satisfy us but A BILL OF SALE FROM THE ALMIGHTY!”
March 12, 1836
From the Milledgeville, GA Federal Union
$10,000 REWARD
For A. A. Phelps
A Noted Abolitionist
February 1, 1836
April 2, 1836
Includes a listing of resolutions passed at an Anti-Abolition meeting, Sept 18, 1835, at the Barnesville Court House, (city or town not given) So. Carolina, essentially these all call upon citizens to defend the right to own slaves, and condemns abolitionist attempts to interfere with domestic policies. An introduction refers to the resolutions which passed at this meeting as, “some of which can equal the worst principles ever spoken or written since the creation of the world. If such be the general sentiments of this state, …..then their state is lost beyond recovery, to any redeeming good.”
April 9, 1836
A long report from a Special Committee of the Legislature, responding to documents which had been sent to the Governor from several southern state Legislatures, complaining about abolitionists and maintaining the constitutional rights of slave holders.
The report of the committee maintains the rightness of these arguments, the report goes on to talk about the conduct of abolitionists to be “not only wrong in, policy, but erroneous in morals.” The resolutions which the committee recommends to the
legislature contains warnings against agitation of the subject of slavery, the need to establish good relations between all the states, and urges the Governor to send copies of the report to all the named southern states.
There is also an “Appeal to the South”, signed by 13 men, none of whom they say is an
Abolitionist. They recount instances in which colored citizens of Mass have been taken from board ships and jailed in various southern ports. They also include a copy of the Georgia legislative bounty on Garrison. The appeal is for these states to repeal these laws which violate the rights of citizens of the state of Mass.
May 7, 1836
These resolutions express a similar view as those from the Mass Legislature (April 9), yet at the same time they encourage a free press. To punish the authors of treasonable or seditious libels is the best way to insure freedom of the press. They “deprecate” any attempt “to prostitute such freedom of discussion to the purposes of disorganization, or unprincipled defamation.”
May 14, 1836
In a May 11 note to Knapp, written from New York, Garrison tells of meetings he has attended, and then adds this at the end: “Last evening the Colonization Society held their meeting at the Chatham Street Chapel, to a crowded audience, made up of a very large number of our friends. The speeches were as incoherent, and weak, and wicked, and blasphemous, as the spirit of brutality and impiety could concoct.”
