Unmasked in America, the time had come when the interests of the Abolition movement on this side of the Atlantic required that it should be stripped of its disguises on the other side also.  No better instrument could be selected for this purpose than the man who had torn the mask from its features in the United States.  And so in March, 1833, the Board of Managers of the New England Anti-Slavery Society notified the public of the appointment of “William Lloyd Garrison as their agent, and that he would proceed to England as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made, for the purpose of procuring funds to aid in the establishment of the proposed MANUAL LABOR SCHOOL FOR COLORED YOUTH, and of disseminating in that country the truth in relation to American slavery, and to its ally, the American Colonization Society.”  The managers offered in justification of their step the fact that “Elliott Cresson is now in England as an agent for the Colonization Society, and that he has procured funds to a considerable amount by representing that the object of the society is ’to assist in the emancipation of all the slaves now in the United States.’  It is important that the philanthropists of that country should be undeceived, and that the real principles and designs of the Colonization Society should be there made known.”

In pursuance of this mission Garrison sailed from New York, May 2, 1833.  Twenty days later he landed in Liverpool.  His arrival was opportune, for all England was watching the closing scene in the drama of West India Emancipation.  He was an eye-witness of the crowning triumph of the English Abolitionists, viz., the breaking by Act of Parliament of the fetters of eight hundred thousand slaves.  He was in time to greet his great spiritual kinsman, William Wilberforce, and to undeceive him in respect of the Colonization Society, before death claimed his body, and to follow him to his last resting-place by the side of Pitt and Fox, in Westminster Abbey.

A highly interesting incident of this visit is best told in Mr. Garrison’s own words.  He said: 

“On arriving in London I received a polite invitation by letter from Mr. Buxton to take breakfast with him.  Presenting myself at the appointed time, when my name was announced, instead of coming forward promptly to take me by the hand, he scrutinized me from head to foot, and then inquired, ’Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Garrison, of Boston, in the United States?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ I replied, ’I am he; and I am here in accordance with your invitation.’  Lifting up his hands he exclaimed, ’Why, my dear sir, I thought you were a black man!  And I have consequently invited this company of ladies and gentlemen to be present to welcome Mr. Garrison, the black advocate of emancipation, from the United States of America.’  I have often said that that is the only compliment I have ever had paid to me that I care to remember or to tell of!  For Mr. Buxton had somehow or other supposed that no white American could plead for those in bondage as I had done, and therefore I must be black!”