BRIAN NGUYEN

APUSH
5TH HOUR

Portraits Ch. 16: I Will Be Heard!

1.

Garrison was a man who was raised from a family that endured hardships, midst of the
Great Awakening and its aftermath. Therefore, Garrison was exposed to the revivalisms
of these religious aspects in society and culture, affecting his mindset for what he
believed was right and wrong. Not only that but his exposure as a Federalist to Boston
put him in a center of diversity. The passage explains the cultural heterogeneity that
Garrison experienced in Boston, meeting Christian missionaries to temperance advocates
to vegetarians to feminists to socialists to all sorts of people. Garrison was in no place of
judgment as he was in the center of hopes and dreams. I believe these factors in his
location, environment, and early childhood all factored up into his disapproval against the
oppression that was seen in slavery. To see someone trapped underneath someone elses
orders. To see someone held back in such a way that Garrison had never seen before was
preposterous. Not only did it contradict against the Declaration of Independence but it
conflicted against Garrisons perspective on life. Therefore, I believe this is why Garrison
took a stance against slavery in the abolitionist movement.

2.

The American and French Revolutions had outcomes that iterated the equality of all men
in the Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man,
respectively. Several Presidents had their different perspectives and outcomes upon
slavery. Jefferson condemned and bemoaned the very thought of slavery yet contradicted
himself as he participated in the act, owning several slaves himself. Washington, for a
chance, freed his slaves and allowed them the opportunity to create a lifestyle that wasnt
oppressed and chained down. Franklin, however, formed manumission societies and
urged the abolition movement to take major stance and for the liquidation of slavery
altogether.

3.

We know racial prejudice existed in places besides the Southern because discrimination
was seen between the whites and the blacks in almost every aspect of life possible. Even
in the North where slavery fell quickly, emancipation proved more difficult in Southern
New England. Acts of emancipation were passed such as the 1780 Pennsylvania
Emancipation Act yet not one single slave was freed. The enactment of this statue had not

even begun for the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, or New York. Even
liberated African Americans couldnt face the freedom that white men had. This was seen
prominently in the restrictions they faced: their denial of voting, denial of sitting on a
jury, denial of testifying in court, their restriction to carry a gun, or even to travel freely.
White employers had even barred free blacks from trades and excluded them in important
aspects of culture and society such as churches, schools, and militia musters. These
African Americans were not free whatsoever. They were excluded. They were denied the
rights as Americans. They were oppressed, even without the bondage of slavery attached
to them. Southerners had feared the emancipation of slavery because the Americans
believed that the African Americans would demand political rights and seize power,
would intermarry with whites and destroy white posterity. These Americans were holding
onto a term that is still seen in todays society: white supremacy.
4.

American slaveholders had supported the American Colonization Society because some
advocates wanted to get rid of all the blacks in the United States. These white
supremacists made up of the majority of the population that supported this misunderstood
organization. Other whites, however, were slaveholders who wanted to deport free blacks
and in doing so, wanted to strengthen the institution of slavery. These people believed
that eliminating free blacks would allow slaves to be content with their lot, making them
better workers and more obedient servants. African Americans, however, opposed the
society because the African Americans asserted their claim to American nationality,
strongly stating that America was their home and their country. Garrison soon came to
realize that the African Americans had a right to American nationality and freedom
becasue if they could be free in Africa, why couldnt they be free in America? In this way,
the critique of colonization became a major central point in Garrisons understanding of
slavery and race.

5.

Gradualism was the false hope to slavery as Garrison knew it wouldve taken at least
generations to abolish slavery through gradualism. Garrison believed that gradualism was
full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity and demanded an immediate end to slavery as
without the ushering and force of abolitionism, it wouldve never come to be true.
Garrison didnt believe in the use of violence as he knew that the rising of violence would
do nothing but create more violence in this already ongoing battle between the African
Americans and the pro-slavery. When I learned about the thought of gradualism, it
seemed futile to me. To take an institution that massed in the sizes of millions and to
simply diminish it through a process of gradualism is like trying to destroy a forest by
simply cutting down one tree a year. The amount of complications and the lack of focus
onto this focal and horrible institution werent going to cut it through gradualism.
There needed to be an immediate action that bolstered the process of abolitionism.

6.

The Liberator sparked the first fires that would continue to grow and grow, only to be
put out through a civil war. Within this newspaper, Garrison had confronted America and
forced the nation to relook at the moral dilemma of racial prejudice. The appearance of
this newspaper challenged not only the institution of slavery in the South but also of antislavery movements in the North due to their futile attempts of gradualism. The nation had
erupted in anger; some juries indicted Garrison of incendiary literature while other people
threatened Garrison, condemning him as a fanatic or a lunatic. Garrison had even been
the target of assassination. This newspaper sparked great flames through the fragile
nation that was so dependent upon slavery because it was an unpopular opinion. Garrison
held up the mirror of a contradicting nation and America feared to look at itself through
the glass. America was built upon the declaration that all men were equal yet couldnt
pull through with that one simple statement. In doing so with the growing of slavery and
the formations of several perspectives against it, America had dug itself into a hole of
moral dilemma that revolved around the lives of millions, divided and conflicted on what
to do with the aspect of slavery.