“Slavery is a foul and monstrous idol, a Juggernaut under which…” — William Cullen Bryant

“Slavery is a foul and monstrous idol, a Juggernaut under which thousands are crushed to death; it is a Moloch for whom the children of the land pass through fire.”

Rejecting gradual emancipation and calling for the immediate end of slavery · Speech at Cooper Union, 2 October 1863

William Cullen Bryant

About William Cullen Bryant

3 November 1794–12 June 1878

William Cullen Bryant was born on 3 November 1794 in the rural hill town of Cummington, Massachusetts, and died in New York City on 12 June 1878. During his unusually long life, he became several things at once: one of the earliest American poets to command serious respect at home and abroad, a formidable editor whose…

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