Summary

As abolitionists continued to debate how and when to bring an end to slavery, the ideas of colonization and assimilation evolved. Leading this evolution were William Lloyd Garrison and Nat Turner. Garrison was initially a supporter of gradual abolition, "a freedom in steps," but grew to adopt an immediate abolition model after collaborating with another bright writer, David Walker (86). Garrison started a newspaper titled the Liberator that helped spread this idea of immediate abolition, which effectively "relaunched the abolitionist movement" (87). The one caveat hiding under the surface of Garrison's activism, however, were his ideas about equality; he believed that slaves should earn physical freedom immediately, but equality "eventually" (87). The man to challenge that thinking directly, and violently, was a slave and a preacher, Nat Turner. Turner believed he was sent on a "holy mission" to free slaves, and began a violent march across Virginia...