On October 21, 1835, a mob seized William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent white abolitionist and newspaper editor, dragged him through the streets of Boston by a rope around his waist, and threatened to kill him. Mr. Garrison had attended a meeting held by the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society to hear remarks from George Thompson, a British abolitionist and personal friend. When Mr. Thompson was warned that a pro-slavery mob planned to tar and feather him, he canceled his appearance. Instead, the mob seized Mr. Garrison, who was eventually rescued by police before leaving Boston the next morning. 

Born in 1805 to Canadian immigrants in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Mr. Garrison co-founded his first newspaper at age 22 and began to focus on the issue of slavery. In 1829, Mr. Garrison became the co-editor of the Baltimore-based anti-slavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, through which he and his colleagues criticized proponents of slavery. 

Unlike most American abolitionists at the time, Mr. Garrison opposed gradual abolition and colonization. In 1830, he founded The Liberator, which advocated for the immediate and uncompensated emancipation of all enslaved people in the U.S and criticized the American Colonization Society's campaign to reduce the number of free Black people in America by relocating them to Africa. 

In 1832, Mr. Garrison helped to organize the American Anti-Slavery Society and sought to keep the organization unaffiliated with any political party. He also advocated for women's equal participation in the organization, a radical stance nearly 90 years before white women in America obtained the right to vote. 

Despite this attack and numerous threats to his life, Mr. Garrison remained a staunch opponent of slavery and lived to see slavery abolished 30 years later.