ickedness of the domestic
slave trade with that of the foreign traffic, which, at that time,
was in the law considered piracy. Arrested, tried, and convicted of
libel, although the facts were proven, Garrison was incarcerated in
the Baltimore jail, April 17, 1830, in default of a fine of $50 with
$50 costs. Undaunted in his captivity, he continued to write his
protest against slavery and to record in verse his feelings. His
famous sonnet, "The Immortal Mind," was written with pencil upon the
walls of his cell. Liberated at the expiration of forty-nine days,
through the generosity of Arthur Tappan, of New York, who paid his
fine, Garrison visited Boston and Newburyport, endeavoring to speak
in both places, but the doors of halls and churches were closed
against him. At last the hall used by a society of avowed infidels,
in Boston, to whom Abner Kneeland preached, was opened to Mr.
Garrison for three anti-slavery lectures, and among the audience at
his first lecture were Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and A.
Bronson Alcott, who then gave in their adhesion to the cause. Dr.
Lyman Beecher was also present but made no sign.

On January 1, 1831, appeared the first number of _The Liberator_, in
Boston, bearing for its motto, "Our Country is the World--Our
Countrymen are Mankind." Mr. Garrison, as editor, was assisted by
Isaac Knapp, a fellow-printer from Newburyport, as publisher. The
paper was issued at No. 6 Merchants' Hall, at the corner of Congress
and Water Streets, in the third story, the partners making their
home in the printing-office. It was this office that Harrison Gray
Otis, the mayor, at the request of ex-Senator Hayne, ferreted out
through his police, describing it as "an obscure hole," containing
the editor and a negro boy, "his only visible auxiliary," while his
supporters were "a very few insignificant persons of all colors."
Lowell has thus described it in a different spirit:

"In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,
Toiled o'er his types, one poor, unlearned young man;
The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean,
Yet there the freedom of a race began."

In the initial editorial appeared the famous declaration of Mr.
Garrison, "I am in earnest--I will not equivocate--I will not
excuse--I will not retreat a single inch--and I will be heard."
Although its circulation was meagre, the publication of _The
Liberator_ made a tremendous sensation throughout the South,
bringing upon its edit