Henry Highland Garnet

Henry Highland Garnet was the first African American to speak before the House of Representatives, and one of the founders of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. At first an advocate of moral suasion, or the use of lecturing and moral persuasion to sway public opinion, he later turned his attention to political lobbying. At the National Negro Convention of 1843 in Albany, NY, Garnet’s growing militancy became apparent in a controversial speech. His “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” called for slaves to free themselves. Disheartened by the hostile treatment of blacks in America, Garnet took a stance unpopular among black activists by supporting African colonization. He spent the last months of his life as minister to Liberia, a country in west Africa colonized by American ex-slaves and black freemen.

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• The Underground Railroad
• William Wells Brown
• Henry Highland Garnet
• Samuel Ringgold Ward
• Slave Purchased and Freed by her Mother
• Runaway Slave Notice
• The Amistad
• Insurrections
• Douglass' Monthly