http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/garrison.htm
In this fierce denouncement of Southern slavery and 'backwardness', Garrison calls for secession. This caught my attention because it had been previously programmed in my mind (through the standard US public education) that it was only the Southern states that desired to be free from the North. It never crossed my mind that there would be those in the North that wished to cut all ties with the heathen South.
Another contradiction that always intrigues is that how one side can demonize the other while participating in similar (if not worse) actions.
Funny, right? In a sense it backs up the saying, "nothing ever changes".
On a funny note.... can you believe that this exisits????
http://www.zazzle.com/william_loyd_garrison_abolitionist_shirt-235428101742201465
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I think Garrison's speech exemplifies the way of thinking in antebellum America. That is, he so passionately supports an ideology (in this case abolition) that he is willing to see the dissolution of the Union despite any possible consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Holmes's experience in "The Metaphysical Club." He is a young man full of ideals but after seeing the horrors of the Civil War he comes to believe that idealism, such as Garrison's, is impractical because it does not facilitate compromise but conflict.