SOURCE: Preface to Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, by Frances Ellen Watkins, Merrihew & Thompson, 1857, pp. 3-4.

Garrison, an American abolitionist and civil libertarian, founded the antislavery journal Liberator and was cofounder of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the following excerpt from his preface to the first edition of Harper's Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, originally published in 1854, he implies that Harper's verse should not be judged by overly strict standards but rather as the work of a deserving apprentice poet. While Garrison believes that Harper demonstrates talent, he also suggests that she needs encouragement and cultivation.

There are half a million free colored persons in our country. These are not admitted to equal rights and privileges with the whites. As a body, their means of education are extremely limited; they are oppressed on every hand; they are confined to the performance of the most menial acts; consequently, it is not...