Black Americans Sustain The Liberator from Its Launch

William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper The Liberator launched January 1, 1831 in Boston. In its first year, approximately 400 of 450 paid subscribers were Black Americans — free Black communities in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York financially sustained the paper before white abolitionists joined. Garrison credited Black support as essential: 'It is they who have sustained me in my labors.'