Two Key Abolitionist Influences in Frederick Douglass' Childhood

The two important abolitionist influences on Frederick Douglass were the publication of the newspaper called the Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 and the controversy in Congress known as the petition crisis in the 1830s./nWilliam Lloyd Garrison, a radical Christian and early feminist, played a significant role in shaping Douglass's anti-slavery views even though Douglass later rejected some of Garrison's beliefs./nJohn Quincy Adams, a former president, fought against the prohibition of anti-slavery petitions in Congress, highlighting the infringement on constitutional rights and the connection between slavery and the erosion of other freedoms./nDouglas developed his anti-slavery consciousness by reading about these events in the Baltimore newspapers and the writings of William Lloyd Garrison in 1830s.