Inquire At Amos Giles Distillery Essay - 1756 Words

Inquire at Amos Giles Distillery is a gripping tale that first appeared in The Liberator on February 21, 1835. The Liberator was a notorious anti-slavery newspaper, founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. In the aforementioned story, Deacon Amos Giles is portrayed as a wicked man who horribly mistreats his workers, paying them extremely meager wages and going so far as to lock them inside his distillery as they labored. The relationship between Deacon Giles behavior and the abolitionist nature of The Liberator is hardly a coincidence – the tale is clearly made to serve the newspaper s agenda, as I intend to make clear. Before delving into the misdeeds of Deacon Giles, I feel it necessary to establish the background of the text in which the story was published. Right from its very first issue, The Liberator did not mince words regarding its goal, which was the â€Å"immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves† in the United States. William Lloyd Garrison, co-publisher of the newspaper, made this agenda crystal clear in the aforementioned first issue. In an open letter to the public, Garrison references The Declaration of Independence and its position on the unalienable rights and equality of men, finally ending his speech with the famously powerful words: â€Å"I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.† Although the majority of the paper s readers were black in its early stages,Show MoreRelatedInquire At Amos Giles Distillery Essay1754 Words   |  8 PagesPage 1 Inquire at Amos Giles Distillery is a gripping tale that first appeared in The Liberator on February 21, 1835. The Liberator was a prominent anti-slavery newspaper, founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. In the short story, Deacon Amos Giles is portrayed as a wicked man who horribly mistreats his workers, paying them extremely meager wages and going so far as to lock them inside his distillery as they labored. The relationship between Deacon Giles behavior and the abolitionist