Presently the young man (Garrison) arose, modestly, but with an air of calm determination, and delivered such a lecture as he only, I believe, at that time, could have written; for he only had had his eyes so anointed that he could see that outrages perpetrated upon Africans were wrongs done to our common humanity; he only, I believe, had had his ears so completely unstopped of “prejudice against color” that the cries of enslaved black men and black women sounded to him as if they came from brothers and sisters. He began with expressing deep regret and shame for the zeal he had lately manifested
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of avowed infidels.
Garrison had but recently denounced the principles of these men; for at this time he was intensely orthodox.
The lesson in charity he thus received from opponents must have been salutary, even to him. The whole incident, including May's conversion, shows how closely knitted together are all the liberal impulses in a community.
At this time May was thirty-three.
His family besought him to shun the new fanaticism; but he put their counsels gently aside.
May is the angel of Anti-slavery.
He gives the following account of his conversion:
Boston, the. Atlantic Monthly. Press, 1921.
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