The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper, founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831. Garrison published weekly issues of The Liberator from Boston continuously for 35 years, from January 1, 1831, to the final issue of January 1, 1866. Although its paid circulation was only about 3,000, three-quarters of whom were African Americans, it earned nationwide notoriety for its uncompromising advocacy of "immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves" in the United States. Garrison set the tone for the paper in his famous open letter "To the Public" in the first issue:

The Liberator faced harsh resistance from several state legislatures: for example, distributors of the paper were subject to a $1,500 fine in South Carolina.

The Liberator continued for three decades from its founding through the end of the American Civil War. Garrison ended the newspaper's run with a valedictory column at the end of 1865, when the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States.

Articles from The Liberator

• William Lloyd Garrison (January 1, 1831): To the Public, Garrison's introductory column for The Liberator
• William Lloyd Garrison (January 8, 1831): Truisms (January 8, 1831)
• William Lloyd Garrison (January 8, 1831): Walker's Appeal
• William Lloyd Garrison (September 3, 1831): The Insurrection, Garrison's reaction to the news of Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia
• William Lloyd Garrison (December 29, 1832): On the Constitution and the Union
• William Lloyd Garrison (January 10, 1845): The American Union
• William Lloyd Garrison (September 28, 1838): Declaration of Sentiments, adopted by the Boston Peace Convention (September 18, 1838), reprinted in The Liberator
• William Lloyd Garrison (June 28, 1839): Abolition at the Ballot Box
• William Lloyd Garrison (January 10, 1845): The American Union
• William Lloyd Garrison (October 28, 1859): The Tragedy at Harper's Ferry, Garrison's first public comments on John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
• William Lloyd Garrison (December 16, 1859): John Brown and the Principle of Nonresistance, the transcript of a speech given for a meeting in the Tremont Temple, Boston, on December 2, 1859, the day that John Brown was hanged
• William Lloyd Garrison (May 3, 1861): The War—Its Cause and Cure
• William Lloyd Garrison (December 29, 1865): Valedictory: The Final Number of The Liberator, Garrison's closing column for The Liberator

Abolitionist newspapers | African American newspapers | Defunct newspapers of the United States | History of slavery in the United States