Ask the Scholar

Orange Scott writes to William Lloyd Garrison discussing his "deep interest in the cause in which you are engaged - and to which your paper is devoted." Scott identifies himself as "a Methodist preacher, Member of the New England Conference, and Presiding Elder of Providence District." He tells Garrison of his plan to purchase 100 copies of the Liberator "to give away," saying he wants all the preachers in his conference to have a copy of the Liberator for a few months. Scott predicts many of the preachers would become subscribers after reading the paper and they would also show it to others who may take out new subscriptions. He tells Garrison he is writing a number of articles "on the subject of immediate emancipation for Zion's Herald" but if that paper declines to publish them, he hopes Garrison might include some in the Liberator. Scott declares, "I am determined to bring the subject of abolition before our ministry and people, and before our next conference." In the postscript, Scott asks Garrison to send him the Liberator beginning with the January issue.