The Liberator Files

A view by the author/researcher/collector, Horace Seldon

One way to measure Garrison’s influence in society, is to examine the breadth and the depth of relationships in which he engaged the world. As that exercise relates to Garrison, here I will list, almost without consultation of records, the names of some of the people with whom he “engaged” in public efforts.

Some of the names will indicate people with whom Garrison had only an “acquaintance” of limited duration or affect. In some cases there is not evidence of any personal meeting of the named person with Garrison, but an indication of knowledge about the other, with a positive evaluation of Garrison’s influence. Some are people with whom he had lasting friendships. The record of some of these relationships will show disruptions and personal hurts, as well as ideological divisions. Many are people with whom there was a mutual, flowing of influence between the personalities involved.

Here are the names, with no attempt to imply importance. If these people gathered in one place at one time it would be quite a meeting!!!

• Charles Francis Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• John Andrew
• Susan B. Anthony
• Bronson Alcott
• Louisa May Alcott
• James Barbadoes
• Henry Ward Beecher
• Lyman Beecher
• James Birney
• H.I. Bowditch
• John Bright
• Henry Box Brown
• Moses Brown
• William Wells Brown
• Arnold Buffman
• Charles Burleigh
• Anthony Burns
• Lady Byron
• Willian Ellery Channing
• Maria Weston Chapman
• David & L. Maria Child
• James Freeman Clarke
• Thomas Clarkson
• William & Ellen Craft
• Prudence Crandall
• James Cropper
• Martin Delaney
• Frederick Douglass
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Calvin Fairbanks
• Charles Follen
• James Forten
• Abby Kelley Foster
• Stephen Foster
• Henry Highland Garnet
• William Goodell
• Leonard Grimes
• Angelina & Sarah Grimke
• Lewis & Harriet Hayden
• William Herndon
• Elizabeth Heyrick
• T. Wentworth Higginson
• John T. Hilton
• Sallie Hollie
• Victor Hugo
• Francis Jackson
• Oliver Johnson
• George Latimer
• Abraham Lincoln
• Ellis Gray Loring
• Owen Lovejoy
• Benjamin Lundy
• Harriet Martineau
• Samuel May
• Samuel May, Jr.
• Robert Morris
• Lucretia Mott
• William Cooper Nell
• Francis W. Newman
• Charles Eliot Norton
• Daniel O’Connor
• Franics Law Olmsted
• Theodore Parker
• Susan Paul
• Thomas Paul
• Thomas Paul, Jr.
• Elizabeth Pease
• Wendell Phillips
• Parker Pillsbury
• Coffin Pitts
• George Putnam
• Edmund Quincy
• Charles Lenox Remond
• Sarah Remond
• John S. Rock
• Nathaniel Rogers
• David Ruggles
• Frank Sanborn
• Thomas Sims
• Gerrit Smith
• John J. Smith
• Samuel Snowden
• Edwin M. Stanton
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Maria Stewart
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Charles Sumner
• Arthur Tappan
• Lewis Tappan
• George Thompson
• Theodore Tilton
• Sojourner Truth
• Harriet Tubman
• Johnathan Walker
• John Greenleaf Whittier
• William Wilberforce
• Henry Wilson
• Elizur Wright

Any student of Garrison will want to add other names immediately, which will expand the numbers, and increase the sense of “wonder” at the remarkable breadth and depth of his life.

A similar list of “public enemies” of Garrison could be compiled. The vitriol of names used to label him, in attempts to reduce his influence, could also be used to indicate the power of his presence. The very attempt to isolate and diminish his relevance was in itself a tribute to his relevance.

This short list is not an attempt to comment on the full personality of Garrison. Such an essay would need to recount the closeness of his affection for Helen and their children, for the evidence of active concern for the welfare of friends. All that is done here is to encourage a counting of the extent of the breadth of the hundreds of prominent people, white and colored, who engaged with him in the work of his public life.

Weighing the influence, measuring the effectiveness of these relationships, is for another time.