Slavery was a struggle for over ten million African Americans during the seventeenth century. Hundreds of groups and individual abolitionists attempted to overthrow slavery, enduring what they had to and willing to accept any consequences in order to get their points across. Through the numerous groups, countless movements were started, laws were issued, and all types of propaganda and literature were sprawled about the country. Slavery may have ended in 1865 but the legacy was carried on until the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the nineteen hundreds and traces are still evident in America today. Through many years of struggling and turmoil the abolitionists, especially William Lloyd Garrison, managed to emancipate slaves and to end slavery.
             The most influential and well-known abolitionist is the great William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1805 ("William Lloyd Garrison" 329). Garrison at age twenty-two heard another famous abolitionist, Benjamin Lundy; give a speech on the abolition of slaves. Garrison was deeply inspired by Lundy and began preaching against slavery and joined Lundy in his quest. Garrison became the junior editor of The Genius of Universal Emancipation which was owned by Lundy (Aptheker 3). Garrison attempted to convince people that immediate and complete emancipation was necessary ("William Lloyd Garrison" 329). A slave trader by the name of Francis Todd filed suit against Garrison for writing about him. Garrison had said how terribly Todd treated his slaves. On April 3, 1830, a jury found Garrison guilty within fifteen minutes for this had taken place in the South where slavery was deemed a necessity and a way of life. The jury sentenced him to a one-hundred dollar fine or six months in jail. Garrison, not having enough money to bail himself out and refusing to accept money from several supporters, proudly entered the Baltimore Public Jail. Garri...