Wendell Phillips was an American abolitionist leader and political reformer, who helped the antislavery cause before the Civil War. He was born on November 29, 1811, in Boston, and went to school at Harvard University and Harvard Law School. In 1837 he reached recognition as one of the most forceful antislavery speakers. When he was at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, he delivered a speech about a proslavery mob that had killed an abolitionist editor. Wendell Phillips also lectured in many parts of the United States against slavery. He was a follower or a disciple of the abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison. He contributed a number of articles to The Liberator, the newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison. Wendell Phillips spoke against the federal Constitution for its toleration of slavery and supports the Union during the time it falls apart. During the Civil War, he criticized President Abraham Lincoln for taking a moderate stand on slavery and the emancipation of the slaves; and then he opposed Lincoln's reelection.In 1865 Wendell Phillips left William Lloyd Garrison over the question of dissolving the American Anti-Slavery Society. William Lloyd Garrison claimed that the purpose of the society had been fulfilled. Wendell Phillips, who wished the society to continue, succeeded William Lloyd Garrison as the American Anti-Slavery president; and led the struggle for enactment of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. In 1870, after the amendments were passed, the society was broken up. After that Wendell Phillips lectured on various causes, which included woman’s suffrage, abolition of capital punishment, rights of workers, and the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. He died on February 2, 1884, in Boston....
