As his sons later wrote in Garrison’s biography, the letters from Minot and her friends likely kindled romantic notions.58 His sons even speculated that when Garrison wrote, “We declare that our heart is neither affected by, nor pledged to, any lady, black or white, bond or free,” in the March 16 issue of the Liberator, he intended to send a message to these young female correspondents as to his own eligibility.59 Although Garrison was usually shy in matters of romance, on a number of occasions he did send thinly veiled love notes to young women through the newspaper when he worked in Newburyport and Bennington.60
While in Haverhill, Garrison did contact and meet with John Greenleaf Whittier, who agreed to join the abolitionist cause. Garrison also met the three “Inquirers after Truth” and was captivated by Harriet Minot. He wrote promptly to her after his visit and told her how much he enjoyed Haverhill, where “my spirit was as elastic as the breeze, and like the lark, soared steadily upward to the gate of heaven.”61 Garrison told her that Haverhill “has almost stolen my heart. Already do I sigh at the separation, like a faithful lover absent from the mistress of his affections. Must months elapse ere I again behold it? The thought is grievous.”62 Garrison’s not so thinly veiled interest in Minot resulted in friendship rather than romance, however. Garrison and Harriet Minot remained correspondents and friends throughout Garrison’s lifetime.
After visiting Haverhill, Garrison embarked on a speaking tour of various cities in the Northeast to raise money for his trip to England. He gave a farewell address before a black audience in Boston on Tuesday, April 2, and traveled to Providence for a similar address on Friday. At the Providence event the local Female Literary Society and the Mutual Relief Society raised fifty-five dollars for Garrison.63
The Benson family attended Garrison’s Providence speech. George Benson and his brother Henry lived in Providence, while the rest of the family—mother Sarah, father George, and sisters Mary, Sarah, Anna, and Helen—traveled from Brooklyn, Connecticut. They witnessed a passionate performance by Garrison and a fervent response by the crowd that took even Garrison by surprise. Many in the black congregation wept and surged around him at the conclusion of his remarks, and they reached out to touch him and shake his hand.64 After the Providence speech Garrison wrote, “The separation of friends, especially if it is to be a long and hazardous one, is a painful event indeed.”65
Garrison and the Bensons stayed overnight in Providence. The following morning, Garrison went to George Benson’s Providence store, where he met briefly with George and his sister Helen. George talked Garrison into traveling to Brooklyn, Connecticut, that afternoon and invited him to stay at the Benson home they called “Friendship Valley.” Once in Brooklyn, Samuel May—who lived across the street—came by to visit and provided Garrison with the latest news regarding Crandall’s school. May also invited Garrison to address his congregation at the Unitarian Meeting House the following day on Sunday, April 7, 1833.66 Garrison hesitated. He had not planned on speaking in Brooklyn. Garrison suspected that as a supporter of Prudence Crandall and editor of the Liberator, the Brooklyn parishioners would regard him as “a terrible monster.”67 Garrison rarely turned down speaking engagements, however, and he did not disappoint Samuel May.
Word reached Prudence Crandall that Garrison planned to speak on Sunday, and she and her sister Almira traveled to the meetinghouse to hear Garrison’s promotion of immediate emancipation.68 When the service began, Crandall noticed that every seat in the church was filled. Nothing Garrison said shocked or startled the congregation; Rev. May had discussed many of Garrison’s ideas in his own sermons. When Garrison finished his speech, the parishioners did not weep as they had in Providence, nor did they rush the podium to shake his hand. Crandall and her sister noted, rather, that the congregation seemed supportive of his remarks. Garrison later said, “As far as I could learn, the address made a salutary impression.”69 In a letter to his brother Henry, George Benson optimistically concluded that Garrison’s speech “removed a mountain of prejudice.”70
10. Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, Connecticut—Samuel Joseph May’s church.
Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, Connecticut. Library of Congress.
After the service, Prudence and Almira spent the evening with Garrison at the Benson’s home. Crandall and Garrison caught up on all of the news of the school, including details about the efforts of her opponents and how only two black women students had enrolled. Garrison assured her he would do all he could to boost enrollment.
“She is a wonderful woman, as undaunted as if she had the whole world on her side,” Garrison wrote to his partner at the Liberator, Isaac Knapp. “She has opened her school, and is resolved to persevere. I wish brother Johnson (Oliver Johnson) to state this fact, particularly, in the next Liberator, and urge all those who intend to send their children thither, to do so without delay.”71
Crandall’s evening with Garrison left her renewed and optimistic. “Indeed it was a source of great joy,” she wrote to Simeon S. Jocelyn.72 She stayed that night at the Benson home in Brooklyn and was able to see Garrison off to his next stop in Hartford. His departure did not occur as planned. The stagecoach for Hartford passed by the Benson home without stopping. Nearly an hour elapsed before the Bensons realized no other stagecoach for Hartford would travel through Brooklyn that day. Rather than have Garrison spend another evening in Brooklyn and miss his appointments in Hartford, George Benson decided to drive Garrison in his own wagon. Traveling in a severe rainstorm, Benson and Garrison eventually caught up to the stagecoach, but not before both were soaked and covered with mud. Garrison arrived in Hartford late Monday evening and addressed a congregation at a black church on Tuesday.73
Thirty minutes after Garrison left the Benson home in the pouring rain, a sheriff from Canterbury arrived at Friendship Valley looking for Garrison. He meant to serve Garrison with papers concerning Andrew Judson’s lawsuit for libel and require that Garrison appear in court. The Bensons said they did not know of Garrison’s whereabouts; the sheriff rode westward on horseback in an unsuccessful attempt to catch Garrison. Crandall believed the sheriff wanted to arrest Garrison and take him into custody. “It was also hinted that they wished to carry him to the South,” Crandall said. “This indeed was the occasion of much sorrow.”74
After speaking in Hartford, Garrison traveled by stagecoach to New Haven on Wednesday, April 10. When the coach stopped in Middletown, he met with Jehiel Beman, a minister in the abolitionist movement and one of Prudence Crandall’s supporters. “It was with as much difficulty as reluctance I tore myself from their company,” Garrison said of his visit with Beman and his black parishioners.75 On arriving in New Haven, Garrison was disappointed to find that his friend Simeon S. Jocelyn was away in New York City. Garrison allowed Simeon’s brother Nathaniel to paint an oil portrait of him; the Jocelyn brothers wanted a likeness suitable for engraving and reproducing in the abolitionist press while Garrison was away in England. On Friday, Garrison traveled to New York to meet Simeon S. Jocelyn, who told Garrison of his close escape from the Canterbury sheriff.76 “I was immediately told that the enemies of the abolition cause had formed a conspiracy to seize my body by legal writs on some false pretenses, with the sole intention to convey me south, and deliver me up to the authorities of Georgia—or in other words, to abduct and destroy me,” Garrison said.77 “No doubt the colonization party will resort to some base measures to prevent, if possible, my departure