Artwork
Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), a charismatic white abolitionist, was deeply inspired by William Lloyd Garrison. His speeches on December 16, 1860 at the Music Hall and at the January 24, 1861 Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society meeting in Tremont Temple manipulated anti-abolitionists into rioting. Phillips put himself at risk to show that anti-abolitionists were literally attacking free speech—behavior that even proslavery journalists condemned.
Portrait, oil on canvas by Charles V. Bond.
Wendell Phillips was an attorney and orator who supported abolitionism, women’s suffrage, Black suffrage, and Native American rights.
