Garrison was born on December 10, 1805, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of immigrants from the British colony of New Brunswick, in present-day Canada.
Under An Act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen, his father Abijah Garrison, a merchant sailing pilot and master, had obtained American papers and moved his family to Newburyport in 1806.
The U.S. Embargo Act of 1807, intended to injure Great Britain, caused a decline in American commercial shipping.
The elder Garrison became unemployed and deserted the family in 1808.
Garrison's mother was Frances Maria Lloyd, reported to have been tall, charming, and of a strong religious character.
She started referring to their son William as Lloyd, his middle name, to preserve her family name; he later printed his name as "Wm.
Lloyd".
She died in 1823, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

Garrison sold home-made lemonade and candy as a youth, and also delivered wood to help support the family.
In 1818, at 13, Garrison began working as an apprentice compositor for the Newburyport Herald.
He soon began writing articles, often under the pseudonym Aristides. (
Aristides was an Athenian statesman and general, nicknamed "the Just".)
After his apprenticeship ended, Garrison became the sole owner, editor, and printer of the Newburyport Free Press, acquiring the rights from his friend Isaac Knapp, who had also apprenticed at the Herald.
One of their regular contributors was poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier.
In this early work as a small-town newspaper writer, Garrison acquired skills he would later use as a nationally-known writer, speaker, and newspaper publisher.
In 1828, he was appointed editor of the National Philanthropist in Boston, Massachusetts, the first American journal to promote legally-mandated temperance.

He became involved in the anti-slavery movement in the 1820s, and over time he rejected both the American Colonization Society and the gradualist views of most others involved in the movement.
Garrison co-founded The Liberator to espouse his abolitionist views, and in 1832 he organized out of its readers the New-England Anti-Slavery Society.
This society expanded into the American Anti-Slavery Society, which espoused the position that slavery should be immediately abolished.
Garrison was born on December 10, 1805, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of immigrants from the British colony of New Brunswick, in present-day Canada. Under An Act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen, his father Abijah Garrison, a merchant sailing pilot and master, had obtained American papers and moved his family to Newburyport in 1806. The U.S. Embargo Act of 1807, intended to injure Great Britain, caused a decline in American commercial shipping. The elder Garrison became unemployed and deserted the family in 1808. Garrison's mother was Frances Maria Lloyd, reported to have been tall, charming, and of a strong religious character. She started referring to their son William as Lloyd, his middle name, to preserve her family name; he later printed his name as "Wm. Lloyd". She died in 1823, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Garrison sold home-made lemonade and candy as a youth, and also delivered wood to help support the family. In 1818, at 13, Garrison began working as an apprentice compositor for the Newburyport Herald. He soon began writing articles, often under the pseudonym Aristides. (Aristides was an Athenian statesman and general, nicknamed "the Just".) After his apprenticeship ended, Garrison became the sole owner, editor, and printer of the Newburyport Free Press, acquiring the rights from his friend Isaac Knapp, who had also apprenticed at the Herald. One of their regular contributors was poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier. In this early work as a small-town newspaper writer, Garrison acquired skills he would later use as a nationally-known writer, speaker, and newspaper publisher. In 1828, he was appointed editor of the National Philanthropist in Boston, Massachusetts, the first American journal to promote legally-mandated temperance.
He became involved in the anti-slavery movement in the 1820s, and over time he rejected both the American Colonization Society and the gradualist views of most others involved in the movement. Garrison co-founded The Liberator to espouse his abolitionist views, and in 1832 he organized out of its readers the New-England Anti-Slavery Society. This society expanded into the American Anti-Slavery Society, which espoused the position that slavery should be immediately abolished.
William Lloyd Garrison