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Primary sourceNewspaper article15 December 1854

The Liberator, 15 December 1854

Hammatt Billings · 15 December 1854

A front page of Garrison's newspaper The Liberator, with a masthead contrasting slavery and emancipation.

This is an issue of Garrison's own newspaper, showing how it looked and argued in the 1850s.

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Masthead of The Liberator newspaper, an engraved illustration with the title THE LIBERATOR in large letters across the bottom. Scenes include an auction of enslaved people with a sign reading slaves, horses, sheep, and other goods, a central robed figure with arms raised breaking chains, enslaved people working in fields, and a gate at right. Below the title is the motto Our Country is the World, our Countrymen are all Mankind.
Hammatt Billings (masthead artist), The Liberator, 15 December 1854. William Lloyd Garrison, publisher.

About this source

What it is

This is a full front page of The Liberator newspaper dated 15 December 1854, with a masthead engraved by artist Hammatt Billings. William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator in Boston.

Why it matters

The masthead's imagery, contrasting a slave auction with a scene of emancipation, visually summarized the paper's abolitionist message. It shows how Garrison and his collaborators used strong visual symbols, alongside Garrison's uncompromising writing, to make readers confront the reality of slavery and imagine its end.

Look closer

  • What two scenes does the masthead contrast, and what message does that send?
  • Why might the artist have chosen to depict an auction block directly?
  • What does the motto beneath the title tell you about the paper's wider goals?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of William Lloyd Garrison on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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