The Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell was an annual, abolitionist gift-book published between 1839 and 1858. Gift books were a popular 19th-century genre that contained essays, poems, and short fiction. Edited and published by Maria Weston Chapman, The Liberty Bell was sold at the National Anti-Slavery Bazaar headed by the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. This mode of publication allowed women to be included in the discussion of current events, even when they were largely excluded from the realm of politics. In this 1845 edition, Frederick Douglass authored an article called "The Folly of Our Opponents."
Douglass highlights the hypocrisy of his contemporary American politicians, such as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who supported the institution of slavery. He ends the article with the hope for emancipation: "Thanks to heaven, 'the morning light is breaking;' our cause is onward; the efforts of our enemies not less than the efforts of our friends, are contributing to increase the strength of that sentiment at home, as well as abroad, which is very soon to dash down the bloody altar of Slavery, and 'proclaim liberty through all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.'"