Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) was born into a wealthy, prominent Bostonian family. His ancestors did not reside in Africa, but in England. They came to the New World around 1630 and led a very promising life in Boston. He was educated and began a promising law career after graduating from Harvard Law. One day while at his office he witnessed William Lloyd Garrison being dragged by a rope to Boston Common. Many of the people dragging Garrison were members of the privileged class of Bostonians that Phillips new personally. This act outraged Phillips into action. After this event, he left his law career and became one of the most memorable speakers for the abolitionist cause. He became famous when he gave a speech in the defense of the late Elijah Lovejoy who was murdered because he was the editor of a paper that was sympathetic to the abolitionist cause.

Phillips’ beliefs mirrored much of William Lloyd Garrison’s. He agreed that the North needed to secede from the Union in order to create a nation free of slavery and full of equality. Also, like Garrison, he believed in the equality of all. He did not just believe that African Americans deserved equality, but women and others did as well. When Garrison retired from the American Anti-Slavery Society, Phillips took over. He led the organization until it was disbanded after the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave all races the right to vote.

The struggle over abolition changed Phillips’ life. He followed the free produce movement and stayed away from products such as cane sugar and cotton. Both were made through slavery. Many people throughout the abolition movement said they wanted freedom, but they still utilized many of the products that were produced through slavery. Phillips was not one of those people. He was not just a speaker for the movement. He actively tried to help slaves find their freedom. In 1854, he was charged with helping a slave escape a jail in Boston. Although unsuccessful, it was clear that Phillips was not going to stand by and watch injustice in his city. 

By: Jessica McKenzie

Credits and Sources:

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. “Wendell Phillips.” Cornell University Library. Accessed September 12, 2016. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/abolitionists/Phillips.htm

Horton, James Oliver and Lois Horton. Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North. New York, NY: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1979.

National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. “Wendell Phillips (1811-1884).” National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. Accessed September 12, 2016. http://www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/wphillips.html

National Park Service. “Wendell Phillips.” National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 12, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/people/wendell-phillips.htm